Late last month, the Vatican released policy and proposal guidelines to its leadership and congregants, intended as a "roadmap in pastoral planning of climate displaced people." Pope Francis, who has made climate change a priority of his papacy,  together with Vatican Leaders, published the ‘Pastoral Guidelines on Climate Displaced People.’

Increasingly the Catholic Church has taken steps to highlight to world leaders the plight of refugees, migrants and asylum seekers. As we noted in a previous Spotlight article, Pope Francis created and presides over a migrants and refugees section of the Vatican Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, in order to lead initiatives for the millions forcibly displaced by war, natural disasters and climate change.

Last week Vatican leaders reiterated their concerns, this time with explicit recognition of the growing number of people being displaced by climate change. Particular attention must be paid to the “poor and vulnerable communities around the world,” Pope Francis said in his opening statement, stressing that “they are the innocent ones, having contributed least to causing the problem in the first place.”

The guidelines, released by the Vatican on 30 March, outlined a ten-chapter document stating the initiatives were aimed at supporting climate displaced people. These ranged from ‘Acknowledging the Climate Crisis and Displacement Nexus’, ‘Promoting awareness and Outreach’ to ‘Cooperating in Strategic Planning and Action.’ 

Highlighting the human cost of the climate crisis, the Church described this as a “profoundly moral issue.” Cardinal Michael Czerny, the undersecretary of the Vatican’s Section for Migrants and Refugees, added:

“We are one planet, one human family and as brothers and sisters we must look out for each other. I don’t think a moral argument needs to be much more complicated than that.”

The guidelines were developed with input from local church leaders and congregations, notably those who had been impacted by climate-related events and displacement. 

“Climate change isn’t a hypothetical threat,” said Archbishop Claudio Dalla Zuanna from Beira, Mozambique, which was devastated by 2019’s Cyclone Idai that destroyed 90 percent of buildings in Beira, triggered flooding and displaced hundreds of thousands of people. 

The policy guidelines provide ways to raise awareness of climate displaced people, encourage dialogue with governments and policy-makers, and call for welcoming displaced people into the Church, as well as ways to integrate displaced people into their countries of arrival.

“Besides the accompaniment of the church, we very much hope for and seek a response from the international community to recognize the shared responsibility for those brothers and sisters forced to flee because of the climate crisis,” Czerny said.

The clear line taken by the Catholic Church shows a step in the right direction for taking collective international action to support those displaced by climate change. The Church has urged for local ‘solidarity networks’ to provide support to those facing displacement as well as the need for ‘a global consensus’ to confront the deeper causes and impacts of climate change. (AFP)