Climate change: Five facts for Catholics

Catholic teaching urges the faithful to take steps to end climate change, to care “for our suffering planet,” as Pope Francis puts it. (Photo: Shutterstock)

THE PUBLIC CONVERSATION about climate change has ramped up year by year, and that is true within church circles as well. For Catholics, the conversation about what faith has to say about climate change began in earnest when Laudato Si’: On care for our common home was published in 2015. This groundbreaking environmental encyclical garnered keen attention from around the world.

Since then, Pope Francis has continued to speak and write about environmental concerns in general and the climate crisis in particular. In fall 2023 the pope released a follow-up to Laudato Si’, the apostolic exhortation Laudate Deum (“Praise God”), which is an impassioned plea for the world to address the climate crisis.

Both documents build upon previous statements and teachings of the church and both are addressed to the entire world, since environmental issues are felt throughout the planet. Following are key messages from Catholic teaching on the climate crisis.

1. Faith and “real life” are connected.

The very act of writing an encyclical on our care for creation—and a follow-up document on the climate crisis—means that Pope Francis, like popes before him, wants Catholics to apply principles from faith to all aspects of life. Our spiritual life is part and parcel of the rest of our life, and it has bearing on how we conduct ourselves in the marketplace, in our relationships, in our politics, and more.

So closely intertwined are faith and material reality that Pope Francis spends a good bit of ink in Laudato Si’ explaining that the created world is an embodiment of God in the same way that human life is made in the image and likeness of God.

Our insistence that each human being is an image of God should not make us overlook the fact that each creature has its own purpose. None is superfluous. The entire material universe speaks of God’s love, his boundless affection for us. Soil, water, mountains: everything is, as it were, a caress of God (Laudato Si’, #84).

2. The climate crisis is urgent and caused by humans.

Pope Francis recognizes that global warming and other types of environmental degradation are harming the Earth and the plants and animals that live on it, including humans. “Rising sea levels, droughts and other phenomena affecting the planet have left many people adrift,” he notes in Laudate Deum (#10). The crisis is not overstated, he emphasizes, and people must face it head on:

As often occurs in periods of deep crisis which require bold decisions, we are tempted to think that what is happening is not entirely clear. Superficially, apart from a few obvious signs of pollution and deterioration, things do not look that serious, and the planet could continue as it is for some time. Such evasiveness serves as a license to carrying on with our present lifestyles and models of production and consumption. This is the way human beings contrive to feed their self-destructive vices: trying not to see them, trying not to acknowledge them, delaying the important decisions and pretending that nothing will happen (LS, #59).

The pope goes even further in Laudate Deum: “The world in which we live is collapsing and may be nearing the breaking point,” he states at the beginning of the document (#2). Furthermore, he provides data about temperature change and clearly links it to human activity. “It is no longer possible to doubt the human—‘anthropic’—origin of climate change,” he writes (LD, #11).

Later he says, “The overwhelming majority of scientists specializing in the climate support this correlation, and only a very small percentage of them seek to deny the evidence” (LD, #13).

3. The climate crisis has cultural and economic roots.

In particular, Pope Francis says our cravings for consumer goods, for our own convenience, and our own comfort, have negative environmental impacts. Technology should not be blindly embraced but rather seen as valuable when it enhances human life and the common good. Economic growth that furthers the climate crisis is a net loss for humanity, he argues. He urges a turn away from what he calls the “technocratic paradigm,” a blind embrace of technology and economic growth.

We have made impressive and awesome technological advances, and we have not realized that at the same time we have turned into highly dangerous beings, capable of threatening the lives of many beings and our own survival (LD, #28).

But a sober look at our world shows that the degree of human intervention, often in the service of business interests and consumerism, is actually making our earth less rich and beautiful, ever more limited and gray, even as technological advances and consumer goods continue to abound limitlessly (LS, #34).

Obsession with a consumerist lifestyle, above all when few people are capable of maintaining it, can only lead to violence and mutual destruction (LS, #204).

Yet, all is not lost, Francis assures us. We can choose what is good and start again.

A change in lifestyle could bring healthy pressure to bear on those who wield political, economic and social power (LS, #206).

A ruined natural environment, Francis says, is closely connected to aspects of our culture that are also in ruins: weak families, dysfunctional governments, and immoral businesses.

Our difficulty in taking up this challenge seriously has much to do with an ethical and cultural decline, which has accompanied the deterioration of the environment. Men and women of our postmodern world run the risk of rampant individualism, and many problems of society are connected with today’s self-centered culture of instant gratification. We see this in the crisis of family and social ties and the difficulties of recognizing the other (LS, #162).

4. Hope prevails: Individual and collective action can help.

Ending climate change begins in our hearts and homes and extends into our jobs, policymaking, and more, says Francis. In Laudate Deum, he pointedly urges those involved in climate conferences to take more decisive and enforceable action. He encourages activists to keep pushing international leaders. Francis holds out hope for healing the planet:

Although the post-industrial period may well be remembered as one of the most irresponsible in history, nonetheless there is reason to hope that humanity at the dawn of the twenty-first century will be remembered for having generously shouldered its grave responsibilities (LS, #165).

A path of productive development, which is more creative and better directed, could correct the present disparity between excessive technological investment in consumption and insufficient investment in resolving urgent problems facing the human family (LS, #192).

Furthermore, by focusing on our vocations (how we use our God-given talents), Francis says we can be part of the process of healing the planet. He notes in Laudate Deum:

Efforts by households to reduce pollution and waste, and to consume with prudence, are creating a new culture. The mere fact that personal, family and community habits are changing is contributing to greater concern about the unfulfilled responsibilities of the political sectors and indignation at the lack of interest shown by the powerful. Let us realize, then, that even though this does not immediately produce a notable effect from the quantitative standpoint, we are helping to bring about large processes of transformation rising from deep within society (LD, #71).

5. Celebration and rest are essential.

Yes, you read that right. Pope Francis ends the lengthy, intricate Laudato Si’ reminding us that a connection exists between a sense of celebration and festivity and our honor for God, nature, and the Eucharist. Furthermore he reminds us that we need to guard the Sabbath, using it to rest and worship. Doing so will renew us in our commitment to nurture both creation and human dignity.

Christian spirituality incorporates the value of relaxation and festivity. We tend to demean contemplative rest as something unproductive and unnecessary, but this is to do away with the very thing which is most important about work: its meaning. … Rest opens our eyes to the larger picture and gives us renewed sensitivity to the rights of others. And so the day of rest, centered on the Eucharist, sheds its light on the whole week, and motivates us to greater concern for nature and the poor (LS, #237).

The mission to care for creation is part of each human being’s essential vocation. As Pope Francis puts it in the final paragraph of Laudato Si’: “God, who calls us to generous commitment and to give him our all, offers us the light and the strength needed to continue on our way. . . . His love constantly impels us to find new ways forward. Praise be to him!” 

A version of this article originally appeared in VISION 2018.

Related article: VocationNetwork.org, “Rural religious take to the highways and byways.”