According to a report by Catholic Climate Covenant, many lay Catholics who have embraced and worked to live out church teachings to safeguard God's creation feel little to no support from clergy, bishops and dioceses, and in some cases opposition.
Catholics across the world have embraced and acted on environmental encyclical Laudato Si'. But the consensus among Catholic ecological leaders is those responses have been not nearly as widespread as Francis sought.
After months of mounting student pressure, Creighton University announced it will partially divest its half-billion-dollar endowment from fossil fuel companies.
Twenty-something Catholics shared their perspectives on abortion with NCR. For many of them, the ongoing national debate and its binary sides fall short of the issue's complexities.
The petition, signed by Catholics in every state, urged the U.S. Senate to pass a bill requiring the president to create a plan to meet the U.S. commitments under the Paris Agreement on climate change.
Jesuit Fr. Daniel Hendrickson released a statement Nov. 13 declining to act on a non-binding referendum supported by 86% of the voting student body to divest the school's endowment from fossil fuels.
Students at Creighton University are awaiting a decision from the school's president after the campus last week voted overwhelmingly to recommend it divest its endowment from fossil fuels.
As the fifth anniversary of the environmental encyclical Laudato Si' approaches, Catholics are working to turn the papal teaching into realizable actions and to make a more concerted effort to care for creation within the U.S. Church.
Pope Francis has appointed Fr. Austin A. Vetter, a priest of the Diocese of Bismarck, North Dakota, to be the bishop of the Diocese of Helena, Montana.
