Leading African, Asian, Latin American prelates issue joint call for climate justice
July 02, 2025
The presidents of CELAM (the Latin American Episcopal Conference), the FABC (Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences), and SECAM (the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar) have issued “A Call for Climate Justice and the Common Home: Ecological Conversion, Transformation and Resistance to False Solutions.”
Cardinals Jaime Spengler, OFM (Brazil), Filipe Neri António Sebastião do Rosário Ferrão (India), and Fridolin Ambongo Besungu, OFM Cap (DR Congo) presented their 34-page joint message to Pope Leo during a July 1 audience. They issued their message in view of COP30, the UN Climate Change Conference, which will take place in Brazil in November.
“The Catholic Church present in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, inspired both by the legacy of Pope Francis and his Laudato Si’ and Laudate Deum, and by Pope Leo XIV’s call to live an integral ecology with justice, peace and prophetic courage, offers this document as an expression of its unwavering commitment to human dignity, peace, the preferential option for the impoverished, climate and social-ecological justice, and the care of our Common Home,” the prelates wrote.
“In recognition of the scientific consensus—such as that of the IPCC—on the need to limit global warming to 1.5°C in order to avoid catastrophic consequences, we raise a prophetic voice calling for peace through an ecological conversion that transforms the current model of development based on extractivism, technocracy and the commodification of nature,” they continued. “At COP30, we demand that States take transformative action based on human dignity, the common good, solidarity and social justice, prioritizing the most vulnerable, including our sister Mother Earth.”
They concluded:
May COP 30 not be just another summit, but a milestone of resistance, intercontinental coordination and real transformation. May it be guided by the living force of communities, by the hope that springs from the margins, and by a Church that is deeply synodal, that walks with the people.
Inspired both by the legacy of Pope Francis and by Pope Leo XIV’s call to live an integral ecology with justice, peace and prophetic courage, we affirm: our Churches of the Global South are not merely witnesses to pain, but seeds of a new future. May the Spirit grant us the unity, boldness and tenderness necessary to continue weaving together the Kingdom of God on this wounded Earth.
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