About

OUR VISION. Catholic Climate Covenant envisions a world in which all humanity shares in both the responsibility and joy of our common home and all creation thrives with wholeness, abundant life, dignity, and justice.

OUR MISSION. The mission of Catholic Climate Covenant is to inspire and mobilize the U.S. Catholic community to care for creation and achieve climate justice through the lens of integral ecology.

OUR VALUES. Catholic Faith, Collaboration, Hope, Working for Justice, Leadership. Learn more. 


OUR HISTORY
. Catholic Climate Covenant is a national nonprofit based in Washington, DC. We inspire and equip people and institutions to care for creation. Through our 20 national partners, we guide the U.S. Church’s response to climate change by educating, giving public witness, and offering resources.

In 2006, to address growing ecological awareness and the need to implement Catholic social teaching on ecology within the US Church, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) helped form Catholic Climate Covenant. Inspired by the USCCB’s 2001 statement on climate change, and supported by 20 national partners (which include Catholic Relief Services, Catholic Charities USA, the Catholic Health Association, congregations of religious men and women, and other national organizations), Catholic Climate Covenant helps US Catholics respond to the Church’s call to care for creation and care for the poor.

We are grounded in the Church’s deep history of teaching on creation, ecology, and the poor. Caring for creation and caring for the poor have been a part of the Catholic story since the beginning, but in recent years St. John Paul II, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, and especially Pope Francis have added a sense of urgency to their call for Catholics to act on climate change. The US Bishops themselves having been calling for action since 1981.

Catholics do care about climate change and they’re working hard to create solutions. Catholic Climate Covenant is at the center of these efforts. With the approval and support of the United States bishops, we help guide the US Church’s response to the moral call for action on climate change by sharing authentic Catholic teaching on creation and the poor and by informing and inspiring community leaders to take action (education); by sharing stories of those most affected by climate impacts in the public square (public witness); and by providing concrete tools, techniques, and technical assistance to help Catholic peoples and institutions reduce their carbon footprint and to work for justice (resources).

Catholic Climate Covenant can help you answer the call to care for creation and the poor through the sharing of Church teaching, our resources, and our programs. Loving God’s creation and God’s most vulnerable is at the heart of who we are as Catholics.

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Our Impact on Climate Change

We're proud of the Church’s legacy on climate change.

Catholic Climate Covenant educates and equips Catholics to take action to protect our Common Home. All our work is made possible by the incredible members of our network. Here’s what we’ve accomplished in 2021:

Climate Accomplishments

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Creation Care Teams
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Letters in Support of Climate Action
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Media Mentions
  • 3k+ Our work was featured in over 3,000 media stories.
  • 7 We organized 7 national press conferences.
  • 2,176 We equipped 2,176 local champions to lead Feast of St. Francis events.
  • We convened one of the first conferences on Laudato Si’.
  • We work with our partners to share the Church’s message on climate change.
  • 125+ Catholic leaders who signed a letter to President Trump supporting the Clean Power Plan
  • 15k Catholics who signed a public letter urging support of the CPP
  • 170+ Catholic leaders of Catholic organizations who signed a letter to the Administration and Congress urging support for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and to rejoin the Paris agreement
  • 8 Online action alerts on topics including the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris agreement, the repeal of the Clean Power Plan, and federal funding for climate science.
  • 14 Letters to the Editor published, uplifting the Catholic voice on climate change in nine states
  • 4 Op-eds published
  • 2 Catholic delegations that met with federal representatives about the federal budget and the House Climate Solutions Caucus
  • 47 Participants in Lobby Training Day who learned how to advocate for climate change solutions from a Catholic perspective and visited individual legislators, accompanied by Covenant staff and volunteers
  • 1 Testimony delivered at the EPA hearing on the repeal of the Clean Power Plan in Charleston, WV

Climate Education

Educational Programs

  • 2,186 Local champions equipped to lead Feast of St. Francis events
  • 1,264 Local champions equipped to lead Earth Day events
  • 1,129 Local champions equipped to lead Season of Creation Prayer Service Series

Creation Care Teams

  • 180 New Creation Care Team Members
  • 400+ Total Creation Care Teams
  • 868 Total Creation Care Team Members

Webinars

  • 26 Webinars on climate-related topics including food and natural disasters

Pastoral Education

  • 200 Pastoral Training Program participants in Dioceses of Toledo and Sacramento
  • 52 New homily helps posted on our website

St. Francis/Laudato Si Pledge

  • 10k+ Total individual and organizational signatures since institution of pledge in 2009

Catholic Energies

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Annual Savings from Projects for participating organizations
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Total Project Cost
  • 4 Successful projects completed in Cincinnati as part of our pilot
  • 6 Projects underway after national rollout in October 2017
  • 5 States in which projects are taking place
  • 40 Catholic organizations interested in being evaluated for the program