Podcast: The Vatican hosted 40 religious leaders to call for climate action. Can they make a difference?

Pope Francis welcomed 40 leaders of the world’s major religions to the Vatican this week to call for definitive action on climate change ahead of the United Nations’ COP26 conference in Glasgow. On “Inside the Vatican,” Gerard O’Connell and Colleen Dulle explain who attended the meeting and what initiatives they called for.

The document the religious leaders signed was seen by many as a parallel to Pope Francis’ environmental encyclical Laudato Si (“Praised Be”), which gave a major push to world leaders to sign on to the Paris Climate Agreement in 2015.

With the COP26 conference focused on advancing the goals of the Paris Agreement, Colleen and Gerry ask, can this interreligious document play a similar role to “Laudato Si,” changing the hearts and minds of political leaders from around the world?

Links from the show:

Pope Francis and 40 faith leaders call for urgent action to combat climate change: ‘Future generations will never forgive us’

Report: 330,000 child victims of sex abuse in France’s Catholic Church

Analysis: In Vatican real estate trial, prosecution made mistakes—but not enough for charges to be dropped against Cardinal Becciu