International

Six months ago, three Cardinals from Brazil, Congo and India sent a letter to the United Nations General Assembly letting the world know the Catholic Church will not remain silent in the face of the climate emergency. “We will continue to raise our voice alongside science, civil society, and the most vulnerable, with truth, courage and consistency, until justice is done.” Just over three months ago at COP30 in Brazil (November 2025), the churches of Global South launched an invitation for a historic coalition between actors from the Global North and South to face the crisis in solidarity. Now, as we approach the first international conference on transitioning away from fossil fuels in Santa Marta, Colombia this April, representatives of the episcopal conferences of Europe and Oceania have joined the churches of the Global South for a renewed clarion call for radical action through the manifesto: Towards peace with creation: an urgent call for ‘a just transition beyond fossil fuels’.

The manifesto’s central demand for a treaty to phase out fossil fuels is perhaps the most significant breakthrough in climate justice discourse. While world leaders dither over incremental adjustments and false solutions, the Churches cut through the noise with revolutionary straightforwardness. They understand that climate justice cannot be achieved without challenging the undemocratic power of fossil fuel corporations that are dominating policy, funding disinformation campaigns, and leading governments to prioritize profit over planetary survival.

We live in a time that urgently demands a Fossil Fuel Treaty. The return to policies of “energy dominance,” that is, the aggressive expansion of oil and gas, environmental deregulation, and the use of force to secure resources, continues to fuel conflicts and forms of petro-imperialism.

Democracy, participation and the defense of rights

What makes this demand so powerful is the integral ecology approach – the focus on equity, democracy and human rights that is required in any response to the climate emergency. The bishops recognize that a fossil fuel treaty would be the ultimate democratic tool. If Canada could commit to international cooperation and join allied nations in the Fossil Fuel non-proliferation Treaty, we have a chance at transferring power from oil, gas and coal companies to communities and ensuring that the people most affected by climate change – and especially defenders of the Earth – are protected, active participants in any decision about our future.  This is precisely what a just transition requires: binding commitments to phase out extraction with clear pathways that prioritize frontline communities over corporate profits.

The manifesto’s most important revelation is how to apply the principles of equity and differentiated responsibility for a truly just transition. Rich countries, whose wealth has been built upon the extraction and exploitation of resources, including fossil fuels, bear an ecological and financial debt to the Global South. The manifesto also directly confronts the unjust financial order that perpetuates climate injustice. The bishops declare that “creditor states and multilateral organizations cannot be demanding payments that compromise the fundamental rights and social protections.” This is a radical rebuke to the IMF, World Bank, and wealthy nations that continue to impose austerity measures and debt obligations that force countries to choose between servicing financial debts and providing their citizens with basic needs and protection from climate disasters.

The climate crisis and debt are two sides of the same coin, threatening the future of poor countries.

The principles identified in the document expose the fundamental contradiction of our current system: financial institutions demand repayment while simultaneously profiting from the very fossil fuel projects that create the climate debt. The Global South bishops recognize this hypocrisy and call for a complete restructuring of financial relationships—one that cancels odious climate debts and redirects funds toward adaptation, renewable energy, and community resilience, in line with Canada’s own Turn Debt Into Hope campaign.

The Prophetic Continuum

This manifesto is not an isolated statement but part of a growing, unified voice of moral authority and leadership from the Global South churches. Over the past year, bishops from Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean have consistently issued letters, manifestos, and communications that build on each other. From their earlier call for “ecological conversion, transformation and resistance to false solutions” to this latest declaration, they have been the conscience of the climate movement.

However, a striking development in this latest manifesto is the inclusion of the European episcopal conference, representing a significant expansion of this prophetic movement beyond the Global South. Yet conspicuously absent are the voices of North American bishops—particularly from Canada and the United States, whose countries remain among the world’s largest per capita emitters and whose fossil fuel industries continue to expand and extract with vigour despite the climate crisis.

The question must be asked: when will the bishops of Canada join this prophetic movement? Their silence in the face of climate injustice is deafening. The Canadian government continues to approve new fossil fuel projects while communities across Canada are without clean drinking water and facing increasingly severe climate impacts. The moral leadership of the Global South churches and now Europe stands in stark contrast to the silence from North American church leadership.

Hope in Resistance

What makes this moment and this movement so powerful is its tone: it is both fiercely denouncing and profoundly hopeful. The bishops condemn the “throwaway culture” and the fossil fuel industry’s relentless pursuit of profit, but they also offer a vision of transformation rooted in faith, human dignity, solidarity, and justice. They remind us that another world is possible—one that honors creation, protects the vulnerable, and builds genuine democracy from the ground up.

Addressing fossil fuel expansion is not only a political or economic issue, but also a profound moral and spiritual question. Has your community joined the Fossil Fuel non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative? Catholic social teaching calls us to be defenders of life, to uphold justice, and exercise discernment in the face of grave risks to our common home. Let us follow this ethical compass to Santa Marta and beyond, with the courage to demand what is just, the wisdom to know what is right, and the hope to build what is possible.

Time is short, but hope mobilizes us. A world free of fossil fuels, just and at peace, is possible and necessary.