EarthBeat

The recovery across the South from Hurricanes Helene and Milton, powerful storms that struck back to back in early autumn, are among 177 open disasters nationwide that Catholic Charities has been addressing.

"Climate and environment policies are one issue that we need to bring to the voting booth — there are lots of others," said Catholic Climate Covenant executive director and founder Dan Misleh. "I would encourage people to understand Catholic social doctrine, and our Gospels — and bring that to the voting booth."

Among delegates attending the latest United Nations biodiversity summit, called COP16, is a coalition of faith groups who say they aim to parcel out a larger space, and voice, for religion in conservation efforts.

El Sínodo de la Amazonía trazó una senda de cambios, desde la creación de nuevas estructuras eclesiales —como la Conferencia Eclesial de la Amazonía— hasta la búsqueda de un rito litúrgico amazónico. Sin embargo, los retos persisten, con los derechos de los pueblos indígenas aún amenazados y la urgencia de proteger al 'pulmón del planeta'. En la búsqueda del papa Francisco de consolidar una Iglesia con "rostro amazónico", las mujeres —entre ellas las hermanas católicas— juegan un papel fundamental. 

A diverse group of religious organizations weighed in to ask the Supreme Court to protect an Apache sacred site from destruction by a copper mining giant, including Catholic ones: The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Knights of Columbus, and Notre Dame Law School's Lindsay and Matt Moroun Religious Liberty Clinic, all filed friend of the court briefs, also known as amicus briefs, in support.

A centuries-old technique for growing floating beds of vegetables — adapted to put the invasive water hyacinth to use — is gaining popularity in Bangladesh amid flooding and sea rise worsened by climate change.

Before the synodal process began in 2021, "We were a church on a mission, now we are a synodal church on a mission," Cardinal Leonardo Steiner of Manaus, Brazil, said at a Vatican briefing Oct. 15. "The synod on the Amazon helped open up this experience (of synodality) and the participation of everyone."

The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation awarded its Hilton Humanitarian Prize for the first time to a South American Indigenous organization, Amazon Frontlines.