Environment Ecology Archives

Pope: Caring for creation means caring for your brother and sister
- Catholic News Agency, Vatican
- July 15, 2017
In a message to participants in an international congress about his 2015 environmental encyclical “Laudato Si” and the challenges of those dwelling in large cities, Pope Francis said these challenges need to be met with “three Rs:” Respect, responsibility and relationship.
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Religious order welcomes gas pipeline opponents to pray at new ‘chapel’
- Catholic News Service, Church in the US
- July 14, 2017
A proposed pipeline’s path takes it through a strip of land the Adorers of the Blood of Christ owns in the Harrisburg Diocese and the sisters contend that construction poses a danger to God’s creation. They have declined repeated offers of compensation to allow an easement for it to be built. The sisters have allowed construction of the chapel built by Lancaster Against Pipelines, a community group working to stop the project.
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BioBlitz helps Mercy sisters catalog all forms of life on Vermont farm
- Catholic News Service, Church in the US
- July 6, 2017
Thanks to a recent “BioBlitz,” the 39-acre Mercy Farm in Benson learned that it is home to an incredible variety of trees, animals, flowers and insects. “We are raping the earth for comfort and profit,” said the farm director. “It’s important that we have places like this in the world where people can get away from everyday life.”
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Indian Jesuit says habits of the heart needed to help environment

A priest in India has urged people to launch a ‘Movement of Catholics’ to save the environment, joining the larger civil society action movement, and making elected representatives accountable for the formulation and implementation of ecological policies. Father Frazer Mascarenhas S.J. said this is also “our religious duty,” adding “this is the call of Pope Francis.”

Politics, culture or theology? Why evangelicals back Trump on global warming

The Catholic Church and mainline Protestant denominations have been some of the loudest voices in calling for action to protect the environment. Why, then, did many Evangelical Christians support Donald Trump’s move to leave the Paris Climate Agreement? New research indicates that on environmental issues, at least, conservative Christian theology may be the driving force behind the sharply divergent views of evangelicals.

Oil pipelines are in step with the church’s integral ecology

Although oil pipelines have gotten a lot of bad press, are they really that bad for the environment? A careful reading of ‘Laudato Si’’ – the ecological encyclical written by Pope Francis – shows that pipelines might actually be the most responsible way to transport petroleum.