Jose Aguto

Pope Francis invited Catholics — and anyone else interested — to join a seven-year journey to widen the reach of his 2015 encyclical on the environment in a time of global climate change.

All sectors of the church are invited to participate in the Laudato Si' Action Platform, the Vatican-backed initiative to encourage concrete action on sustainability and climate change. Based on Pope Francis' landmark encyclical on care for creation, it aims to spark a cultural shift away from exploitation of the planet and its resources.

Commentary: At an interfaith event in front of the U.S. Capitol — a 12-hour vigil — we prayed and called upon Congress to support the Build Back Better legislation and create a more just, dignified and livable future.

For three days in online spaces, thousands of Catholics looked to prime the U.S. church for a stronger response to climate change and Pope Francis' call to become a central component in the global response to the world's ecological challenges.

The mobilization effort will focus on four main areas: advocacy, community resilience, education and ecological spirituality. The hope is that young Catholics will mold the program to support what they want to do to further environmental stewardship.

In the U.S., 2021 will mean a new president making up for four years of environmental deregulation under Trump. Globally, it means making up for missed Paris Agreement deadlines delayed by the pandemic.

Catholic Climate Covenant is organizing what they are calling the "U.S. Catholic Climate Project," a yearlong intergenerational Catholic initiative to gather Catholics from across the church to make "the moral call for climate action."

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.