This was a very busy year for growth and planning for us at Catholic Climate Covenant! We started with strategic planning in the Spring, where we settled on a new logo and tagline to define our U.S. Catholic work for creation: “Together for Our Common Home.” We felt that best described how it will take all of us, united, to make a difference.
Then we recently unveiled a brand new website! The look and feel are updated, but so are key features that will make our work easier to navigate, such as a searchable Resources tool that lets you search our vast collection of free resources throughout the years, including programs, prayers, videos… etc…
And part of this year’s planning included better defining our mission and vision, and thinking of what are the values that define us as an organization. We look forward with hope to 2024 to continue our work with you, and keep bringing life to these values.
Our Guiding Core Values
Catholic faith
We are guided by our Catholic faith that tells us God is with us as we strive to live according to the example and teaching of Jesus Christ.
Care for our common home is one of the seven themes of Catholic social teaching and a requirement of our faith. We are called to protect all of God’s creation, living in right relationship with our common home, Earth, and all its life and people, paying special attention to the communities affected by poverty who are also the most affected by climate change.
The roots of Catholic social teaching, a central and essential element of our faith, come from the prophets who announced God’s special love for the poor and called God’s people to a covenant of love and justice.
Collaboration
“Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age” (Matthew 28:19-20).
We believe in the Triune God whose very nature is communal and social. We who are made in God’s image share this communal, social nature. We are called to help build on earth God’s kingdom of “truth and life, a kingdom of holiness and grace, a kingdom of justice, love and peace” (Lumen Gentium, no. 36).
Inspired by this knowledge, we do not walk alone. We walk with God, work in partnership with 20 national partners across the United States, and journey with many other religious and lay communities, families, individuals, youth, and young adults.
Hope
“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the holy Spirit” (Romans 15: 13).
Christian hope is not passive wishing, but a theological virtue that catalyzes prudent action.
Scientific consensus confirms our common home is suffering from climate change and we have a narrow and critical moment to act to protect our common home. It can be easy to be immobilized by fear and anxiety. However, our faith in God and in each other keeps us living in hope.
We believe we have the tools to combat this crisis if we act with purpose and in solidarity with one another. So long as our hearts remain open and imbued with Jesus’ call to not be afraid and to take courageous action, there is hope.
Working for Justice
“Let justice surge like waters, and righteousness like an unfailing stream” (Amos 5:24).
Justice in the Catholic tradition entails giving persons their due—protecting human rights as claims on the basic goods needed to protect the dignity of each sacred person. Saint John Paul II affirms “the right to a safe environment” (1990 World Day of Peace Message) and the Church recognizes justice, peace, and care for our common home as inexorably connected.
Justice expresses Christian love and reforms systems, structures, and policies that violate human dignity. This is what the Church traditionally calls social justice and what Pope Francis terms “social love” (Laudato Si’, no. 231). Justice also calls us to especially protect those most vulnerable to violations of dignity—what the Church calls the option for the poor and marginalized (Matthew 25:35-46).
Climate change and ecological degradation unjustly harm the marginalized first and most. These persons and communities often contribute least to these problems. To love our neighbors as God loves us (John 13:34), we respond to the Church’s call for climate and environmental justice through local and systemic action.
Leadership
“He said to them, ‘Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature'” (Mark 16:15).
Our environmental crisis has moral dimensions that implicate life and human dignity and which we must urgently address. Yet we know nothing is impossible with God if we truly believe and work together. We are inspired by the Holy Spirit to act in boldness to proclaim Jesus Christ and the truths of our faith and love in and through Him, and all his creation.
That is why we were founded: to help lead our U.S. Catholic community into a future where our common home and all creation thrives with wholeness, abundant life, dignity, and justice.
We work with faith, vision, and courage to change hearts and minds toward climate action and for the common good. We seek to lead with strategic vision in community and fellowship with others, with faith-filled and forward-looking programs, organizing, education, actions, advocacy, and solutions – Together for our Common Home.
