Catholic perspectives on climate change

The floods in Central America have captured the Progressio homepage this week, and for good reason. Communities we’re working in have been devastated.

We work with some of the communities in the region most vulnerable to climate change so it’s not surprising that when disaster strikes (as it does with increasing frequency) people we know are hit first and worst.

It’s not surprising, but it’s absolutely heart-breaking when it happens.

While we have to be careful about attributing any one weather event to climate change, our colleagues in Central America see the flooding as the latest in a long line of ferocious events that are coming thicker and faster than they have before.

So it’s fitting that we should be campaigning to make sure the Government doesn’t pull a u-turn on carbon emission reductions.

As Maggie von Vogt, one of our development workers in El Salvador says, “there really is no other option than to move forward with this kind of legislation, as of yesterday!”

You can write to your MP here. Many Progressio campaigners already have.

But for leadership on the environment we don’t have the Government alone to look to. The Catholic Church at the highest levels has long offered sound reflection.

I’ve helped to write the latest Progressio briefing on the topic: Climate change and environmental justice: Catholic perspectives. It’s well worth a read, giving some of the key highlights from documents and speeches past and present.

Download the briefing here.

The Church places its clear and strong messages on climate change within its wider teaching on care for creation, stewardship and environmental justice. And between the Pope, the Vatican, and Bishops’ Conferences around the world, these messages represent pretty much a Catholic consensus.

They’re words all people of goodwill should heed. As communities in El Salvador face the news that more rains are on the way, it’s right that we’re all reminded about the things we can do. 

Emergency aid as well as prayer and development are all needed to fight climate change, but reducing greenhouse gas emissions has to be an essential part of our Christian response. And the sooner the better.

Photo: Progressio ICS Empower volunteer Ingrid Leduc gets stuck in delivering food aid to El Salvadoran communities affected by the recent flooding. Credit: Progressio

Daniel Hale is Progressio’s Campaigns Officer.