Pope's Environmental Encyclical

The effective struggle against environmental change will only be possible with an urgent, responsible, collective response that goes beyond particular interests and behavior and is developed free from political and economic pressures … There is a clear, definitive and ineluctable ethical imperative to act …  It is a serious ethical and moral responsibility.
Pope’s Message to UN COP 20
December 12, 2014


Vatican Radio confirmed last August that Pope Francis had indeed completed a draft of his encyclical on the environment. Since then, much has been said and written in anticipation of this document which will be about a third greater in size than his last encyclical. While there is no date set yet for its publication, there is consensus that it is due before the end of 2015 in anticipation of the 2015 Climate Change Agreement which is due to be negotiated in Paris in December 2015.

An interesting anticipatory discussion can be heard on CBC podcast with Anna Maria Tremonti. Her guests included Heather Eaton, an ecological Catholic Theologian at Saint Paul University in Ottawa; Asma Mahdi, an environmental scientist and board member of Green Muslims in Washington and Jim Wallis, Christian Evangelical writer and political activist.