By Joe Gunn
It has often been remarked that, in the days before the 2013 Conclave that elected him as pope, Jorge Bergoglio told the Cardinals that, “The church is called to come out of herself and to go to the peripheries, not only geographically, but also the existential peripheries…”
Over decade later, these “peripheries” turned the tables – they arrived at the metropole to deliver their own historic challenge to all Christians, especially those of us in the Global North. Could anyone have predicted what topic would be their churches’ utmost priority?
Global warming has been defined as “an existential issue of justice, dignity and care for our common home.”
In a press conference at the Vatican on July 1, 2025, three Cardinals, presidents of their regional organizations, presented a message from the Catholic Episcopal Conferences and Councils of Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean on the occasion of COP30 (the UN conference on climate change, scheduled for Brazil in November 2025.) Their 30-page text is titled, “A Call for Climate Justice and the Common Home: Ecological Conversion, Transformation and Resistance to False Solutions.”
This year marks the 10th anniversary of the publication of Francis’ encyclical, Laudato Si, as well as the legally binding treaty at COP21 in Paris that famously committed 196 nation signatories to limit global warming to an increase under 1.5 degrees Celsius. Nonetheless, the bishops call for a profound ecological conversion because global warming already reached a 1.55 degrees C increase in 2024.
They “demand the phasing out of fossil fuels,” using strong language to reject all new exploration, exploitation, and infrastructure: “In the context of the climate collapse we are experiencing, it is seriously contradictory to use profits from oil extraction to finance what is presented as an energy transition, without any effective commitment to overcoming it.”
They “condemn ‘green capitalism’ mining and energy monoculture which sacrifice communities and ecosystems” and “demand a radical economic transformation that favours conditions for life on Earth to thrive.” Indeed, “the growing rhetoric that the solution lies in expanding mining, especially for the extraction of minerals considered “critical” and rare earths, is ecologically unsustainable, unjust and predatory.” This is an echo of Francis’ 2024 message to the last COP, Laudate Deum, in which he wrote, “We must move beyond the mentality of appearing to be concerned but not having the courage needed to produce substantial changes.” (LD #56)
They want to see “zero deforestation in all biomes by 2030” (a commitment already adopted at COP16 on Biodiversity in 2021) and receive assurances that international finance institutions no longer invest in fossil fuels and extractive projects.”
However, the churches of the Global South do more than denounce our current situation.
In their “Calls to Action” the bishops demand that rich countries “recognize and assume their social and ecological debt as the main actors responsible for extracting natural resources and emitting greenhouse gases.” In doing this they demand “reparations” – commitment to “fair, accessible and effective” climate finance that “does not generate more debt.” They repeat the January 1, 2025, Jubilee Year call of Francis to “cancel or significantly reduce the debts of the poorest countries.”
They prophetically oppose unfettered markets. Specifically, they “reject the ‘false solutions’ of the financialization and commodification of nature” and “stand up to carbon offset schemes” that “unfairly shift the burden of reducing emissions from those who cause them to those who suffer them and put profit before life; and which perpetuate the exploitation of the earth, its living beings, and its peoples, instead of addressing the causes of the crisis.”
Several rather predictable steps are offered for the churches themselves to take up, such as education for members, ongoing dialogues with scientific evidence and “sobriety as resistance to consumerism.” But especially innovative is the announcement that “as a sign of lasting commitment, we are launching the Ecclesial Observatory on Climate Justice.” Notably, this new institute will not be located in Rome under the Vatican but promoted by the Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon. The initiative will surely deepen the ability of the churches to monitor and encourage the fulfilment of COP agreements and call out non-compliance.
Importantly, the text also calls for the establishment of “a historic coalition” with “coherent allies from all sectors and countries of the Global North committed to ethics, equity and justice.” To my ears, this sounds like an invitation that the congregational members of ORCIE are going to be most definitely proud to accept!
Joe Gunn serves as Treasurer of ORCIE.