Where is the Catholic Church on Climate Change?

When Pope Francis’s first encyclical on the environment was released ten years ago this summer, it made headlines beyond Catholic media. The 184-page document, a call to caring for the environment as a religious and moral duty, was published just before the 2015 Paris Agreement treaty on climate change, Laudato Sí, or “Praise be to you” in Latin, did what papal encyclicals rarely do: reached beyond the church hierarchy to unite and inspire scientists, clergy, activists, politicians, and laypeople in the fight to combat climate change on behalf of those suffering the most—the poor.