Kimberley Heatherington

Professor Samuel Shephard from Ave Maria University suggests that Catholics can contribute a unique perspective to Earth Day, celebrated each April 22, by viewing it as an opportunity to fulfill their role as stewards of creation. Shephard said Catholics can place the importance of practical actions like reducing plastic use and ethical clothing purchases within the context of God's "loving plan for salvation."

"What I find particularly spiritual in an eclipse is that we can predict precisely when it will happen — and plan accordingly — but we cannot predict just what it will look like or how we will react," said Brother Guy Consolmagno. "In that way, it reminds me how God is forever reliable but still always able to surprise us.

In 1966, the U.S. bishops released the faithful from the traditional law of Friday abstinence. But if American Catholics returned to meatless Fridays outside of Lent, what would be the resulting climate impact?

The Paulists, a U.S. religious order, have announced they are likely to close ministries, due to falling numbers of available priests. They are expecting to have 31 members in active ministry by 2034.

People who have looked closely as their order was passed to them through a drive-in window may have noticed a sticker or sign announcing the location serving them is a franchise of a national, or even international, brand.

In an unwelcome revelation for American Catholics, the federal government announced in a March 2023 Federal Register notice a procedural change in how it processes green cards for foreign-born religious workers.

Less than two weeks after the United Auto Workers secured historic concessions from the nation's "Big Three" automakers, another prominent union can claim a significant victory: the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.

"This whole synodal approach is really consistent with the deepest spiritual traditions within the church. How did they work out what to do at the First Council of Jerusalem?"

The United Auto Workers labor strike against the "Big Three" car producers -- Ford, General Motors and Stellantis, whose 14 automotive brands include Chrysler, Dodge, and Jeep -- has ended with a series of contracts experts say emphasizes the importance of unions in Catholic social teaching, especially for achieving family wages through collective action.

When Enrique Alarcón Garcia, president of Frater España, a Christian fraternity of people with disabilities in Spain, entered the Vatican's Paul VI Audience Hall as a papal appointee to the Synod on Synodality, it seems one of the first things he noticed was the seating arrangements.

More than 25 University of San Diego faculty members have issued a statement echoing the pope's focus on climate change, challenging their campus to improve the climate impact and sustainability of its food systems. 

The Biden administration has made a bid to support both clean energy and jobs for young people with the creation of the American Climate Corps. The announcement was greeted with "excitement and hope" by Kayla Jacobs, program manager of youth mobilization at Catholic Climate Covenant. "Initiatives like this are one of many steps that are needed for a sustainable and just future," she said.

The United Nations held its first-ever "Climate Ambition Summit" Sept. 20 — a conference that included 41 countries, but excluded both the United States and China because the U.N. invited only leaders from nations with concrete plans to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions.

In what is thought to have been the largest climate change rally since 2019, an estimated crowd of as many as 75,000 demonstrators from some 700 organizations and activist groups paraded through the streets of New York City Sept. 17 in the "March to End Fossil Fuels."

Many Catholics, increasingly aware of the environmental impact of fossil fuels, are at the forefront of a "green revolution," heeding the call of several popes to explore and implement alternatives. As the 2023 Season of Creation begins, OSV News discovered what some Catholic dioceses and organizations are doing to become better caretakers of the earth.

More than 80 million Americans are currently under dangerous heat advisories. Temperatures in California's Death Valley hover around 120 degrees Fahrenheit at midnight. Phoenix as of July 31 had seen 31 straight days of heat over 110 F, the cause of 25 deaths. Spain, Greece and Italy have recorded all-time high temperatures. In several Middle Eastern countries, the heat index mid-July reached 152 F, considered almost at the limit for human survival.

In a move timed to coincide with holiday tourism, hotel workers in Southern California walked off the job July 2, asking for higher wages, affordable health care, a retirement pension, and manageable workloads.

The drier conditions and warmer temperatures associated with climate change can create the conditions that make it easier for wildfires to start. Landscapes — both soil and trees — are now often more thoroughly damaged, making it more difficult for them to regenerate. The concentration of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere is also raised by wildfire activity.

A megadrought jeopardizes the Colorado River and, with it, water supplies for major U.S. cities and farms. Catholics in affected states are complementing efforts to prevent disaster with Laudato Si' firmly in mind.

A new Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ruling announced April 6 may help Sharon Lavigne's Rise St. James and other environmental justice groups in the region in their fight.