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GLOBAL CLIMATE MOVEMENT MOURNS PASSING OF POPE FRANCIS  
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Eloise Goldsmith
April 21, 2025
Common Dreams
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_ "Pope Francis spoke plainly and with clarity about the climate
crisis," said one environmental advocate. _

A priest holds a sacrament bowl showing an image of Pope Francis at
the John Garang Mausoleum in Juba, South Sudan, Feb. 5, 2023., (Ben
Curtis/AP Photo)

 

The Monday passing
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Pope Francis, the world's first Latin American pontiff, has prompted
an outpouring of tributes for the spiritual leader—including from
members of the environmental movement who remembered him as a champion
of climate justice.

"If he could bring new hope and energy to an institution as hidebound
as the Vatican, there was reason for all of us to go on working on our
own hidebound institutions," wrote
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environmental activist and author Bill McKibben
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that Francis' passing had hit him hard.

Francis, 88, passed away from a stroke, followed by a coma and
irreversible cardiocirculatory collapse, the Vatican announced
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He died a day after briefly meeting
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U.S. Vice President JD Vance on Sunday morning. His annual Easter
speech, which was read by a surrogate, included
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condemnation of unnamed political leaders who use "fear" to oppress
marginalized people including immigrants and refugees.

McKibben highlighted that Franceis brought "moral resolve to the
question of climate change," including by making environmental issues
the subject of his 2015 encyclical "Laudato Si',
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which Mckibben called "arguably the most important piece of writing so
far this millennium.

In Laudato Si', a papal letter,
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called the climate crisis a global problem with grave consequences,
particularly for the poor. It was the first papal letter exclusively
focused on the environment, according
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New York Times. _When The Paris Agreement, a global climate treaty,
was adopted later that year, several leaders made specific reference
to the pope's words about climate change during their addresses to the
United Nations climate conference, per the _Times._

The national nonprofit Catholic Climate Covenant paid tribute to
Francis in a statement Monday, emphasizing
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impact of Laudato Si', and writing that his "leadership and attention
to 'the poorest of the poor' and our Common Home inspired and renewed
not only our work but that of billions of people around the world."

Laudato Si' also spawned a global climate group, the Laudato Si'
Movement, which has representation in 115 countries across five
continents, according [[link removed]] to
its website. The group was previously called the Global Catholic
Climate Movement.

"All around the world, you saw all of these people reading the
encyclical, writing letters to the editor, posting on social media,
forming discussion groups in their parishes," Rebecca Elliott, senior
director for strategy and special projects at Laudato Si'
Movement, told
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According to Mauricio López Oropeza, a rector and lay vice president
of the Amazon Ecclesial Network who spoke to the _Times_, one of the
most important impacts of Laudato Si' has been the church's work in
the Amazon basin.

Unhappy with the lack of progress in combating the climate crisis,
Francis wrote a follow-up to Laudato Si' in 2023, "Laudate Deum."

"The necessary transition toward clean energy sources such as wind and
solar energy, and the abandonment of fossil fuels, is not progressing
at the necessary speed," he wrote
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Laudate Deum.

He also directly called
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the United States for being disproportionately responsible
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planet-warming emissions.

"Pope Francis spoke plainly and with clarity about the climate crisis,
correctly naming that the burning of fossil fuels only further
exacerbates our peril and that the United States has a moral
obligation to lead by example as the world's leading historical
emitter," Sierra Club
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Jealous said
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In addition to his stance on the environment, Francis also loosened
official
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attitudes toward divorce and approved non-wedding blessings
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same-sex couples, among other actions generally viewed as progressive.

_Eloise Goldsmith is a staff writer for Common Dreams._

* Pope Francis
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* Climate Change
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* Environmental Protests
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