We thank Dan Misleh of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) for this Earth Day call to action:

As the United States marks Earth Day, USCCB and CRS are among the national Catholic organizations calling on Catholic individuals and families, parishes and schools, religious communities, colleges and hospitals and other Catholic organizations to take a unique St. Francis Pledge to Care for Creation and the Poor.

The efforts of the Catholic Coalition on Climate Change respond to and build upon the leadership of Pope Benedict XVI, the U.S. Catholic Bishops, and many Catholic religious communities who believe that our response to climate change must be guided by the exercise of prudence, the pursuit of the common good and a priority for the poor. A list of coalition members is below.

YOU are asked to take the St Francis Pledge to Care for Creation and the Poor by promising to:
• PRAY and reflect on the duty to care for God’s creation and the poor and vulnerable;
• LEARN about and educate others on both the reality of climate change and its moral dimensions;
• ASSESS your participation in contributing to climate change (i.e. consumption and conservation);
• ACT to change your choices and behaviors contributing to climate change and;
• ADVOCATE Catholic principles and priorities in climate change discussions and decisions, especially as they impact the poor and vulnerable.

The coalition’s website offers concrete help in carrying out the St Francis Pledge with specific ways for Catholics to learn to “tread lightly and act boldly”, reducing your own carbon footprint as an expression of solidarity with those most impacted by climate change.

“The real ‘inconvenient truth’,” according to John Carr of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, “is that those who contribute the least to climate change in our own country and around the world will suffer the most and have least capacity to respond. Poor families and vulnerable workers and farmers are most likely to bear the greatest burdens in responding to climate change. We believe an essential moral measure of the debate and decisions on climate change will be how it helps or hurts the poor and vulnerable in the U.S. and abroad.”

In addition to CRS and USCCB, organizational partners and sponsors of the Covenant Campaign include:

• Catholic Charities USA serving nearly 8 million people in more than 1700 local Catholic Charities agencies and institutions.
• The Catholic Health Association of the United States serving one in six Americans in hospitals
• The National Catholic Education Association, the largest private education system in the world
• The Conference of Major Superiors of Men and the Leadership Conference of Women Religious representing hundreds of religious communities who lead with a sense of mission and real world examples of how to care for people in poverty and for God’s gift of creation.
• The Franciscan Action Network,
• the National Council of Catholic Women
• the National Catholic Rural Life Conference
• the National Federation of Priests’ Councils,
• the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities, and many others.