Can Pope Francis Convince U.S. Bishops to Care About Climate Change?

When the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage in June, the leader of America’s Catholics erupted in white-hot fury, condemning the historic decision as “a tragic error.”

When a week or so earlier, it fell to Archbishop Joseph Kurtz as leader of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) to deliver the official welcome to Pope Francis as he issued his sweeping indictment of the global economic order and its effects on the poor and the environment, the response was several degrees cooler.

Kurtz, while ostensibly endorsing the pope’s call to action, did not join the leader of his faith in condemning pollution as a sin.  He did not echo the pope’s call for an urgent phasing out of fossil fuels.  And Kurtz most definitely did not join the pope in attributing climate change largely to human activities, and calling out powerful vested interests for seeking to conceal the evidence of climate change.  In fact, Kurtz did not mention climate change at all.

Activists from the Catholic Church and other faith traditions are preparing a vast mobilization around the pope’s visit this month culminating in a vigil and Sept. 24 rally on Washington’s Mall where they are hoping to draw crowds of 300,000.  But they described a disconnect between the enthusiasm of community groups and the patchy response from the church leadership.

“I think Francis would be disappointed by the lack of urgency in the response of most American bishops.  This isn’t just a letter to be read, but a call to be acted upon,” said Christopher Hale, director of Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good.  “To date, the American Catholic Church has yet to answer that call in a meaningful way.”

Only a few church leaders have gone so far as Richard Pates, the bishop of Des Moines, who held a press conference by a wind turbine and publicly called on presidential candidates to drop climate denial, or Blaise Cupich, the Archbishop of Chicago, who co-wrote an opinion piece with the head of the Environmental Protection Agency urging action on climate change, and has pledged to green all 2,700 church properties in his diocese.

Other bishops, notably in California and the Southwest, have also come out strongly in support of the pope.  The Archbishop of Atlanta drafted a detailed action plan, with energy audits and solar installations for poor neighborhoods. 
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“I think that the Catholic Church is making giant strides.  I think they are also walking a line between where many of their constituents are and what the Vatican is saying,” said Evan Berry, professor of religion and philosophy at American University and author of Devoted to Nature, about the religious roots of the U.S. environmental movement.
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“I think it’s a lot easier to come out in support of progressive policies on climate change if you are the Archbishop of Los Angeles, Seattle, Santa Fe or Miami, than if you are the Archbishop of Cleveland or West Virginia,” Berry said.  “If you are the bishop of a major city or an entire state you are going to want to maintain good relations with politicians in your area so that you can advocate on behalf of your constituencies.  If you are in a state like Kentucky or Ohio, it would be pretty difficult to throw your whole weight into an issue like climate change when you have equal concerns about schools or hospital funding or hunger.”

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