Consistent with traditional Catholic teaching, Catholic Climate Covenant recognizes care for creation and a concern for climate change as a pro-life issue.
"The climate is a common good, belonging to all and meant for all. At the global level, it is a complex system linked to many of the essential conditions for human life." – Pope Francis, Laudato Si', June 2015
"How can we separate, or even set at odds, the protection of the environment and the protection of human life, including the life of the unborn?" – Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, Address to the Members of the Diplomatic Corps, January 2010
"Can we remain indifferent before the problems associated with such realities as climate change ... ? All these are issues with a profound impact on the exercise of human rights, such as the right to life, food, health and development" (4). – Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, World Day of Peace Message, January 2010
"The way humanity treats the environment influences the way it treats itself, and vice versa" (51, emphasis in original). – Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate, June 2009
"The most profound and serious indication of the moral implications underlying the ecological problem is the lack of respect for life evident in many of the patterns of environmental pollution" (7).
"No peaceful society can afford to neglect either respect for life or the fact that there is an integrity to creation" (7, emphasis in original).
"If an appreciation of the value of the human person and of human life is lacking, we will also lose interest in others and in the earth itself" (13).
"Respect for life and for the dignity of the human person extends also to the rest of creation, which is called to join man in praising God" (16). – All quotes above from Saint Pope John Paul II, World Day of Peace Message, January 1990
"The web of life is one. Our mistreatment of the natural world diminishes our own dignity and sacredness, not only because we are destroying resources that future generations of humans need, but because we are engaging in actions that contradict what it means to be human. Our tradition calls us to protect the life and dignity of the human person, and it is increasingly clear that this task cannot be separated from the care and defense of all of creation." – USCCB, Renewing the Earth, November 1991
Further Reading
- Global Climate Change: A Plea for Dialogue, Prudence, and the Common Good by the USCCB
- “Climate Change: A Life Issue” published by America Magazine
- Catholic Relief Services’ response to climate change