About Us: Catholics for Christian Climate Action, generally known as Catholic CCA, is a group within CCA that looks to engage Catholics at every level of the Church, on the urgency of the climate emergency.
We aim to follow Pope Francis’ strong lead – particularly in his ground-breaking Encyclical Letter Laudato Si’, his recent exhortation Laudate Deum, and his subsequent Apostolic Exhortation Laudate Deum. Our starting point within Catholic CCA is the science behind the climate and ecological emergency, but we are informed in our response to this by our faith.
We look to Catholic Social Teaching alongside the Gospel, for what it offers in understanding what is asked of us. We seek action by the Church, as well as societal action, that reflects the need for justice in our relations with God’s creation, God’s poor, and future generations. The climate emergency requires political action and engagement, including action by and within Catholic organisations. We hope to energise this collective Catholic political response to the climate and ecological emergency particularly in the public space, as an effective witness to our calling as people of God in this time of need.
We are supported and strengthened by our ecumenical bonds with other Christian denominations within CCA, however we recognise that there is sometimes a distinctively Catholic way of doing things and so we have this specifically Catholic working group, acknowledging our common connection as Catholics and the fellowship of joining with others who share our spirituality and understanding of sacramentality.
Join us: There are laity, religious and clergy in Catholics for Christian Climate Action, and we often work in collaboration with other Catholic agencies and groups. We have a WhatsApp group to share information and we usually meet monthly on the first Sunday of the month at 6pm for about an hour.
If you’d like to know more about Catholic CCA or get involved, contact us: catholicscca@christianclimateaction
All Catholics who accept the principles and values of CCA are welcome to join us.
WHAT DO WE DO?
Church divestment from fossil fuels: CCA has been part of the successful campaigns for the Church of England Synod to adopt an internal 2030 net zero emissions target and more recently for its National Investing Bodies to divest from fossil fuel investments.
We want to encourage dioceses and other investing bodies within the Catholic Church who still hold investments in fossil fuels to do the same.
Church financing of fossil fuel investment via banks: Where Catholic diocese (and therefore parishes) bank is important. The fossil fuel industry and other climate destruction is funded by loans from banks and Barclays in particular funds this devastation. We encourage Catholic diocese and other bodies to move to ethical bank accounts.
Public witness
We think it is important to for us to take the values of our faith out of the pews and to be visible in the public space in defence of our common home. Alongside CCA prayer
protests we try to organise distinctively Catholic acts of public witness and we support other organisations protests with our prayer.
Spreading the message
CCA people have always organised talks and events within their own churches,
encouraging them to get involved in CCA and to act with the kind of urgency we feel is needed and as Catholics within CCA we focus some of our energies on engaging our Catholic parishes, groups and leadership.
We are keen to build both interfaith links and ways in which we can amplify and support global climate justice initiatives with direct action. We would welcome the opportunity to consider whether we can add anything to specific campaigns.
Climate activism for peace
The suffering caused by war across the world in Gaza, Yemen, the DRC, Ukraine and
countless other places is unjustifiable. Alongside the human suffering is the cost to the rest
of the planet. War has terrible consequences for local biodiversity and ecosystems and
significant greenhouse gas emissions. For this reason we support peace protests and
protests against the arms trade.
Examples of Past CCA Catholics Actions
Holding Vigil outside the Bishops Conference: In November 2022, we held vigil outside on the first day of the Bishops Conference. We prayed for vital global financial assistance for the poorest and most vulnerable countries affected by climate change. We held a banner reading “Loss and Damage is a Pro-Life Issue”, referring to the effects of the harm caused by human-generated climate change.
We were asking the Bishops to speak out to the UK Government about paying the debt owed to these vulnerable countries by the UK as a result of its share of historic and ongoing greenhouse gas emissions which have led to the current climate crisis.
Calling on Catholic Diocese to Divest: On 5th March 2023. we visited 12 Cathedrals and Minsters, including the Catholic Cathedrals of Salford, Clifton, Liverpool , Shrewsbury, Wrexham, Hexham and Newcastle and Westminster. We were urging the dioceses: divest from fossil fuels as quickly as possible, commits to not reinvesting in fossil fuels in the future and, instead puts their money into investments which will promote a sustainable future such as renewable technologies.
In the lead up we also visited a number of Cathedrals representing diocese which have already divested from fossil fuels to thank them.
In the last five years, every Catholic diocese in Scotland has divested and 10 Catholic dioceses in England have made a divestment commitment. In addition, other major denominations in the UK, including the Methodist Church and the United Reformed Church, have divested, or committed to divest, from fossil fuel companies because these companies are fuelling the climate emergency. However, 10 English Catholic dioceses are still investing in fossil fuels and two have divested but have not publicly committed to not reinvest in the future (including Westminster)
Catholics at The Big One: In April 2023, a large protest was held in London, called The Big One. CCA facilitated a faith hub there, and was part of a coalition that held the No Faith In Fossil Fuels Church Service before The Big One began.
We were delighted that CAFOD and the Laudato Si Movement supported The Big One. We were also joined for No Faith in Fossil Fuels service by children from a Catholic school in London, who read bidding prayers.
After the service all groups walked in pilgrimage from St John’s Waterloo to Parliament Square, stopping at the Shell Centre on the way, where Magdalena Noszczyk, LSM European In-Country Programs Coordinator, read Pope Francis’ Prayer For Our Earth. We joined 1400 Christians of all denominations in this prayer protest.
The following day, in a powerful act of witness, Columban Fr Joe Ryan celebrated mass for us facing Parliament – you can read more about it here. It one of was of a number of services led by clergy and faith leaders from traditions as diverse as Majority Black Church Pentecostalism to young Christians from ecumenical groups that were hosted by CCA during the four day protest. We learnt Sufi dancing as a way of prayer during an interfaith event.
Refugee Week Vigil: Climate change is causing migration and displacement. It is happening now to those who live on the frontlines of the climate crisis. For many, without the resources to cope what what is happening, migration is the only way of adapting. And as the impacts of climate change increase globally, the number of climate refugees will grow exponentially.
This is why Catholics from CCA went to support the Refugee Week Vigil on June 19th 2023 outside the Home Office organised by The London Catholic Worker, Westminster Justice & Peace and London Churches Refugee Fund
DSEI Arms Fair: We stood – or rather sat – alongside Pax Christi at the candlelit peace vigil on 11th September 2023, the evening before the start of the DSEI Arms Fair at the ExCeL in London and the following morning took part in a die-in and silent prayer as an act of witness in solidarity with those against whom these weapons are used and to make the link between climate change and militarisation.
Military emissions – according to a 2022 estimate by international experts – account for 5.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions. War also devastates biodiversity and destroys ecosystems including Iraq’s wetlands and Afghanistan’s forests. Weapons of war make matters worse in climate vulnerable countries like Yemen. And as climate change tightens it’s grip and resource scarcity causes conflict and migration in countries like Sudan, migrants face increasingly militarised borders and it is likely that these weapons will be used more and more widely against vulnerable people.
Join us
There are laity, religious and clergy in Catholics for Christian Climate Action, and we often work in collaboration with other Catholic agencies and groups. We have a WhatsApp group to share information and we usually meet monthly on the first Sunday of the month at 6pm for about an hour.
If you’d like to know more about Catholic CCA or get involved, contact us: catholicscca@christianclimateaction
All Catholics who accept the principles and values of CCA are welcome to join us.
Christian Climate Action 