Brian Roewe

Burning Question: Poor air quality from an oil well. Contaminated drinking water from a chemical plant. Low-income housing located in a floodplain. These are all examples of environmental injustice.

Twenty-something Catholics shared their perspectives on abortion with NCR. For many of them, the ongoing national debate and its binary sides fall short of the issue's complexities.

The question of whether there is a "Catholic vote" in Iowa most often leads political watchers to Dubuque County, where over half the 96,000 residents identify as Catholic.

A federal appeals court on Friday directed the dismissal of a high-profile lawsuit brought by 21 youth plaintiffs who had sued the U.S. federal government for violating their constitutional rights through its inaction on climate change.

Burning Questions: Real trees are greener, so if you skip the artificial and now pine over how best to recycle this year's spruce, this question is fir you.

Catholic organizations at the U.N. climate change conference were disappointed by lackluster outcomes and the disconnect between the urgency shown by science and called for by millions, and the talk among governments.

In a busy week for the Swedish teen climate activist, what she likely hoped people paid the most attention was her COP 25 speech. And not just the buzzy parts.

The gap between words and actions on climate change is a sign of "weak" awareness of the urgent steps needed in the next decade to avert a climate disaster, Pope Francis said in his message to participants at the United Nations climate summit in Madrid.

The petition, signed by Catholics in every state, urged the U.S. Senate to pass a bill requiring the president to create a plan to meet the U.S. commitments under the Paris Agreement on climate change.

Burning Questions: Our reader asked what exactly the Paris Agreement requires of individual countries, and is anyone keeping track?

Jesuit Fr. Daniel Hendrickson released a statement Nov. 13 declining to act on a non-binding referendum supported by 86% of the voting student body to divest the school's endowment from fossil fuels.

Students at Creighton University are awaiting a decision from the school's president after the campus last week voted overwhelmingly to recommend it divest its endowment from fossil fuels.

The challenges of expanding how many parishes and dioceses embrace the messages in Pope Francis' encyclical "Laudato Si', on Care for Our Common Home," are complex. NCR takes a closer look at how four dioceses — Atlanta, New York City, Indianapolis and San Bernardino — are doing it.

Catholic Relief Services, Sisters of Mercy and Franciscan Action Network were among the groups to condemn the administration as it formally began the process to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris accord.

As the fifth anniversary of the environmental encyclical Laudato Si' approaches, Catholics are working to turn the papal teaching into realizable actions and to make a more concerted effort to care for creation within the U.S. Church. 

Nick Venner, 18, is one of the plaintiffs in a groundbreaking lawsuit that argues that the U.S. government facilitated the growth of the fossil fuel industry and knew for decades about the potential climate fallout.

The Synod of Bishops for the Amazon has called on Pope Francis to allow for the priestly ordination of married men on a regional basis to address a lack of ministers across the nine-nation region.

"As the bishop of the diocese [of Rome] I ask forgiveness to anyone who was offended," Francis said Oct. 25, referencing the incident involving four wooden statues depicting a pregnant woman.

Josianne Gauthier, secretary general of CIDSE, the network of 18 Catholic social justice organizations, said that throughout the synod's three weeks a "great need" has been articulated for the church to do more to denounce destructive industrial development projects in the world's largest rain forest.