In a statement at COP28, the USCCB committee called decarbonisation of the economy the "preeminent environmental challenge faced by all nations" that must be addressed without burdening middle-and low-income citizens with increased costs.

However, according to Reuters, the US bishops continue to hold on to substantial investments in fossil fuel companies, directly benefiting from these industries.

"US dioceses hold millions of dollars of stock in fossil fuel companies through portfolios intended to fund church operations and pay clergy salaries, according to a Reuters review of financial statements.

"And at least a dozen are also leasing land to drillers, according to land records," reports Richard Valdmanis.

US Bishops stand firm

Despite Pope Francis' impassioned calls to shun highly polluting fuels, the USCCB stands firm in its reluctance to divest from these industries.

Reuters investigations into the financial reports of various American dioceses reveal substantial holdings in energy stocks and land leases with drillers.

While the Vatican and other global Catholic institutions embrace divestment strategies, the USCCB's investment guidance, guided by the Christian Brothers Investment Service, advocates active shareholder engagement with major oil and gas companies rather than wholesale divestment.

Media mirrors money

According to Sabrina Danielson, a professor at Creighton University, the bishops' financial engagement with major oil and gas companies is mirrored in the Catholic media they own.

Danielson has studied the media engagement of US bishops on the issue of climate change.

Fewer than 1% of the more than 12,000 columns by US bishops in official publications since 2014 mentioned climate change, Danielson found in a 2021 study.

She says that many of those mentioning climate change downplayed the urgency of global warming or described the topic as controversial.

Vatican continues to lead

The approach of the US Catholic bishops on Climate Change runs counter to the Vatican's lead.

In 2008 when Benedict XVI was pope, the first of 2,400 solar panels were installed on top of the papal audience hall in Vatican City.

Then, following this first move and several others in between, on 16 November 2023 the Vatican announced a new sustainability programme.

As part of the programme the Vatican

• will expand the number of charging stations for electric cars
• signed an agreement with German carmaker Volkswagen to replace the city-state's entire car fleet with electric vehicles by 2030
• ensure its electricity comes exclusively from renewable sources.
  

Sources

Crux Now

US News & World Report

Reuters

NBC

CathNews NZ

Rome Reports

Billed as the Pathways to Prevention, Healing and Justice Inaugural Sunrise Walk, it coincided with the annual day of observance for the prevention of child sexual exploitation and abuse established by the Council of Europe in 2015.

The Catholic leaders and sexual abuse survivors were part of a group that included lay advocates, New York Board of Rabbi's executive vice president Rabbi Joe Potasnik and Islamic Relief USA president Anwar Khan.

Before the walk, the group held hands and listened to prayers from leaders of each faith. It was capped off by Cardinal Seán O'Malley of Boston, president of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.

"We're here representing so many survivors, people around the world, we're united with them in prayer, and in solidarity," O'Malley said.

"Father Goodness, we invoke your blessing upon us. Heal all of the broken hearts so damaged by this terrible scourge of abuse. Help us to be ever committed to safeguarding, and bringing some reconciliation, and love into our world. Help us repair the broken world we're living in. In this, we ask, in Jesus's name, Amen."

Auxiliary Bishop Elias Lorenzo of Newark has worked on child sexual abuse cases for years. He called them "some of the most horrible stories" he has ever heard.

"This work still needs to be done. We are not finished," Lorenzo told Crux. "We in the church are trying to address [this problem] and walk, literally, with survivors to find hope and healing in their lives, and hopefully in that common walk, they will feel comfortable returning to church and into the love that God can give them."

The abuse solidarity walk ended alongside the harbour, where further words of support and prayers were shared.

Father Gerard McGlone is a clergy sex abuse survivor and member of the Global Collaborative group that sponsored the event. He noted the significance of the walk coinciding with the US Bishops Conference fall plenary.

McGlone commented that the walk "sends a clear message" that Catholic Church leaders recognize the problem of child sex abuse. That the abuse occurs both within the church, and in general society.

"For us to be able to preach about it, for us to be able to teach about putting survivor's stories first, is really the point of this," he told Crux.

Sources

Crux Now

Archbishop Allen Vigneron, who leads the Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit, was named this week by Archbishop José Gomez of Los Angeles, the president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), to head the new group on the last day of the bishops' annual fall meeting.

Gomez struck a conservative tone in his remarks in emphasizing abortion by saying Biden supports policies that "attack some fundamental values we hold dear." Biden spoke last week with Pope Francis in a call seen as a show of unity that was praised by liberal and moderate Catholics.

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Right now, they are facing deportation.

The Catholic church in the US has issued an urgent call to action to help Dreamers (young immigrants brought illegally to the country as children).

While they are currently shielded from deportation under an Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) programme, this is about to change.

DACA allowed some individuals who entered the country as minors, and had either entered or remained in the country illegally, to receive a renewable two-year period of deferred action from deportation and to be eligible for a work permit.

The protection DACA offers is about to change.

President Trump ordered an end to DACA last September. He gave Congress until 5 March to deal with the fate of DACA recipients.

The Senate's failure last week to get the 60 votes needed to move a bill forward to protect Dreamers is affecting about 700,000 immigrants.

The precarious position the Dreamers may find themselves in has spurred Church leaders from across the US to ask Catholics to contact members of Congress next Monday.

Dubbing Monday 26 February as a "National Catholic Call-In Day to Protect Dreamers," the bishops want Catholics to ask Congress members "to protect Dreamers from deportation, to provide them a path to citizenship, and to avoid any damage to existing protections for families and unaccompanied minors in the process."

"With the March 5th deadline looming, we ask once again that members of Congress show the leadership necessary to find a just and humane solution for these young people, who daily face mounting anxiety and uncertainty," they said.

Source

• Houston Chronicle
• The Catholic Register
• Image: La Prensa Peru

About 200,000 people died in the 7.0 magnitude quake which displaced over a million others.

Removing the TPS will affect between 50,000 and 60,000 people who sought refuge in the United States (US).

The US is giving the Haitians until July 2019 to leave the country.

Ashley Feasley, who is the Director of the Migration Policy and Public Affairs at the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, says the Bishops are "extremely concerned about what's going to happen to these individuals and their families."

Many Haitians have built new lives in the US.

About 6,200 have mortgages and 27,000 have US-born children.

The TPS policy allows people, who are unable to live safely or return home because of issues like armed conflict and natural disasters, to stay in the US while the situation in their home country resolves.

The US feels the situation in Haiti has improved enough for the TPS refugees to go home.

"Significant steps have been taken to improve the stability and quality of life for Haitian citizens, and Haiti is able to safely receive traditional levels of returned citizens," Homeland Security secretary Elaine Duke says.

"Haiti has also demonstrated a commitment to adequately prepare for when the country's TPS designation is terminated."

The opposite view is held by David Quinn, a Catholic missionary who has lived in Haiti for the past two years.

Whether Haiti is able to support an influx of 60,000 people is a question that hasn't been resolved, he claims.

He says Haiti has not recovered from the earthquake or from the Category 5 Hurricane Matthew which further devastated the country a year ago.

In his view, Haiti is ill-equipped to provide for the people who already live there, let alone the tens of thousands who left seven years ago.

"They have never recovered from the earthquake from what I can see," Quinn says.

"They've cleaned up some things here and there, but as far as returning to what they had before? Not even close. Their economy hasn't improved since the earthquake, it's been continuing to degrade, and many, many people are without work yet."

Quinn says in Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital, people are still living in "tents and tin boxes".

He points out that most people subsist off a "pittance of an income and a really poor diet."

Unemployment is already high and adding a further 60,000 people to the mix is going to cause further difficulty.

"How are they going to feed themselves?" he wonders.

He notes the government was not prepared to handle the earthquake's aftermath and did little to help its own people.

Most work to improve living conditions has been done by non-profit and charitable organisations, he says.

Source

• Haiti Libre
• Vox
• Catholic News Agency
• Image: Oxfam America