In 2015, Pope Francis - head of the Catholic Church - published Laudato Si: On Care For Our Common Home, a “papal cyclical,” or open letter, to the world’s more than 1.3 billion Catholics about the ethical imperative of addressing climate change, and the relationship between environmental stewardship and social justice. The publication had an impact: in church-goers’ confidence in the scientific evidence for climate change, in country leaders who cited it in the COP21 negotiations that led to the Paris Agreement, and in catalyzing an international movement among the Catholic community to fight climate change.
But as he makes clear in the follow up “apostolic exhortation” released earlier this month, called Laudate Deum, Pope Francis knows the work accomplished so far is not enough. Climate Now was joined by Dr. Mary Evelyn Tucker, Director of the Forum on Religion and Ecology at Yale University, to examine this urgent papal call for progress in protecting the environment and the poor, and the impact it may have in the global climate movement.
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