US Bishops urge Trump administration to care for creation

In a letter to the United States Secretary of State on Friday, chairmen of the US Bishops' Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development and Committee on International Justice and Peace, along with Sean Callahan, President of Catholic Relief Services, urged the Administration to do everything they can to care for creation both domestically and globally.

Building upon Pope Francis's encyclical Laudato si'. . . the letter emphasizes the importance of adaptation policies and specifically calls for continued US support of the Paris climate agreement as well as the Green Climate Fund, which provides poorer nations with resources to adapt to and mitigate changing climate realities.

"The Judeo-Christian tradition has always understood the environment to be a gift from God, and we are all called 'to protect our one common home,'" said Bishop Frank J Dewane of Venice, Florida, Bishop Oscar Cantú of Las Cruces, New Mexico and Sean L Callahan, President of Catholic Relief Services (CRS). The call to care for the environment echoes Pope Francis' call to help poor and vulnerable people adapt to the effects of climate change.

The message also recognizes that "uncompromising support for adaptation policies in no way excludes efforts to mitigate the anthropogenic contributors to climate change" and called for an "energy revolution" to deliver "not only sustainable, efficient and clean energy, but also energy that is secure, affordable, accessible and equitable."

The full text of the letter can be found here: www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/human-life-and-dignity/environment/upload/USCCB-CRS-Letter-to-Secretary-Tillerson-on-Care-for-Creation-02-17-2017.pdf

Source: USCCB