Catholics agencies remove fossil fuels from investment portfolios

Numerous Catholic organisations are divesting fossil fuels from their share portfolios.

They want to show the world it is not okay to keep polluting the environment.

As an example, nine Italian organisations divested from fossil fuel corporations in time to send a message to the G7 summit being held today and tomorrow in Taormina, Sicily.

Representatives of the organisations said earlier this month they were inspired to act by Pope Francis’s encyclical, “Laudato Si, on Care for Our Common Home.”

Several others in the US, Britain and Italy have joined the fossil fuel divestment movement.

Neil Thorns, who is the director of advocacy for the Catholic Agency For Overseas Development, said Catholics around the world are taking notice of Pope Francis’s concern for the environment.

“Global temperatures last year were, for the third year running, the hottest on record,” Thorns pointed out.

“Catholics around the world have recognized the impact this has on our sisters and brothers and are responding to the pope’s call for us to take action.”

A global divestment campaign that ran earlier this month saw many organisations withdrawing investments from companies involved in coal, oil and natural gas extraction.

Renewable energy is now receiving cash injections from Catholic investors.

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