{"id":4318,"date":"2015-09-22T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-09-22T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/weact.org\/updates\/faith-and-the-environmental-movement-a-franciscan-perspective\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T19:49:28","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T00:49:28","slug":"faith-and-the-environmental-movement-a-franciscan-perspective","status":"publish","type":"update","link":"http:\/\/weact.org\/es\/updates\/faith-and-the-environmental-movement-a-franciscan-perspective\/","title":{"rendered":"Faith and the Environmental Movement: A Franciscan Perspective"},"template":"","class_list":["post-4318","update","type-update","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","update_type-blog"],"acf":{"details":{"":null,"featured_image":3230,"update_type":[364],"focus_area":false,"authors":false,"abstract":""},"page_layout":[{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_wysiwyg","acfe_flexible_toggle":"","component_wysiwyg":{"content":"Catholics are natural allies in the struggle for environmental justice. As a Catholic, I have been most drawn to the example of St. Francis of Assisi, who is our tradition\u2019s patron saint of the environment. St. Francis, who followed Jesus\u2019 call to leave everything behind and live a life of intentional poverty and simplicity, lived in a medieval world where people, who had previously enjoyed a more intimate bond with their ecosystems, began to be disconnected from the land as a result of extensive land holdings owned and controlled by the small minority in the ruling class. This separation of people from the land, coupled with abuse of power, led to oppression and a class of poor deprived of their humanity and dignity.\r\n\r\nFrancis\u2019 identification with the poor gradually brought him to an understanding of his place as a \u201clittle brother\u201d to all humanity and all creation. His famous \u201cCanticle of the Creatures,\u201d which is the inspiration for Pope Francis\u2019 encyclical Laudato Si\u2019, reveals how integrally interconnected St. Francis felt to all elements of God\u2019s creation. He came to see God reflected in all of creation and therefore sought to maintain the integrity of all creation.\r\n\r\nThe essence of Franciscan spirituality, then, is a focus on seeing God in everyone, especially the marginalized, and working toward protecting the integrity of all creation. Therefore, by working to maintain the integrity of all creation\u2014with particular emphasis on the poor, vulnerable, and those least responsible for environmental degradation\u2014Franciscan spirituality lends itself to a focus on environmental and climate justice.\r\n\r\nThrough St. Francis\u2019 commitment to following the convictions of his faith, he consciously joined the \u201cstory of power,\u201d which is the story of humans and creation that also \u201cincludes a focus on the differences of status, privilege, social class, levels of influence, wealth and political and social power of various groups\u201d (Franciscan Care for Creation). This is the story that continues through the environmental justice movement today.\r\n\r\nEnvironmental justice communities have a unique perspective on the ways in which consumer culture and differences in societal power negatively affect the health of impacted communities. By tapping into our own spiritual wells and joining the spiritual movement for climate justice, we can help to bridge the knowledge and lived experience of these communities with the moral clarity of our faith traditions \u2013 thereby more effectively helping to ensure that policies and systems prioritize the health of people and ecosystems, rather than business interests.\r\n\r\nBy examining our own tradition\u2019s religious teachings on the environment and engaging in dialogue with congregations about our role in causing harm to \u2013 or protecting the integrity of \u2013 creation, we are lending our voices to the environmental justice movement. We are moving ourselves and others into a new consciousness about how to live in unity and harmony with the earth and one another.\r\n\r\nSome of the ways Catholic congregations and other faith communities are doing this include conducting energy audits of houses of worship, converting to clean energy where possible, starting compost and garden projects, divesting from fossil fuels, and advocating for better U.S. climate policy. The Franciscan Action Network, where I serve on the Board of Directors, is leading an interfaith coalition working to get money out of politics and calling out members of Congress who have been supportive of the Koch brothers\u2019 \u201cNo Climate Tax\u201d pledge through a #KochvsPope campaign, among other actions.\r\n\r\nAbove all, we are promoting the concept of simple living, which allows us to practice a life of ongoing conversion and provides lifelong opportunities to live in right relationship with our world. Catholics in the Franciscan tradition embrace an ecology that keeps humans and all of creation out of harm\u2019s way. It allows us to see the \u201cthisness\u201d \u2013 the unique specialness of each particular living and nonliving thing \u2013 that is characteristic of Franciscan spirituality.\r\n\r\nThis post was written by WE ACT member Kelly Moltzen. The opinions expressed here represent her opinion and not those of WE ACT","include_drop_cap":false}}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Faith and the Environmental Movement: A Franciscan Perspective - WE ACT for Environmental Justice<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/weact.org\/es\/updates\/faith-and-the-environmental-movement-a-franciscan-perspective\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"es_ES\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Faith and the Environmental Movement: A Franciscan Perspective - WE ACT for Environmental Justice\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/weact.org\/es\/updates\/faith-and-the-environmental-movement-a-franciscan-perspective\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"WE ACT for Environmental Justice\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-02-17T00:49:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/weact.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Pope-Francis.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"960\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"540\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/weact.org\/updates\/faith-and-the-environmental-movement-a-franciscan-perspective\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/weact.org\/updates\/faith-and-the-environmental-movement-a-franciscan-perspective\/\",\"name\":\"Faith and the Environmental Movement: A Franciscan Perspective - 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