The ecological restoration work here is locked in a race against deforestation as hard-pressed Malagasy turn to the forests to make charcoal, build homes or clear the forest for subsistence food production.

Pope Francis encouraged the Mauritian people to support “a better division of income and the integral promotion of the poor” and “not to yield to the temptation of an idolatrous economic model that sacrifices human lives on the altar of speculation and profit alone.”

The community of 50 sisters now draws 50% of their convent's electrical power from the sun.

Dorian has been pushing its way up the Southeastern U.S. coast, menacing Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina.

Pope Francis said that the forthcoming United Nations Climate Action Summit “is of particular importance.”

October’s Synod on the Amazon gives the church an opportunity to hear the cries of the earth and the people of this richly diverse, life-giving and fragile region.