Climate change, the Archbishop and the Pope

An analysis of the approaches to climate change taken by the Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church

On 19 June, the Church Times reported  that when asked to contrast General Synod’s response to climate change and the encyclical published by the Vatican, William Fittall, its General Secretary said “you would struggle to put a cigarette paper between [them]”. In his blog Jonathon Porritt posed a different question: Can Archbishop Welby (a Former Oil Man) Rise to the Pope’s Challenge?, and concluded: “… there’ll be plenty of people there arguing that the Church of England’s leadership on climate change is just as significant as the Pope’s. Frankly, that’s just not true. Right now, the contrast between Pope Francis’s and Justin Welby’s approach to climate change could not be more stark.” Jonathon’s post helped crystallize some early thoughts on a drafting a post from yet another point of view: “What can the Catholic Church learn from the Church of England on climate change?” Continue reading