CUA Law Professor Lucia Silecchia was quoted in an E&E News article entitled "1,000 sermons: Clergy invokes kids' case from the pulpit" on October 19, 2018.

1,000 sermons: Clergy invokes kids' case from the pulpit

From: E&E News
By: Benjamin Hulac
Date: October 19, 2018

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U.N. climate reports and peer-reviewed studies can be technical and weighty.

"Everyone is aware that there is a different frequency or dimension of action when you talk about climate change in sermons," Gore said. "In a sermon, it's a chance to really go deeper, often into root causes."

Lucia Silecchia, a Catholic University law professor, said religious communities have focused more attention generally on environmental matters in roughly the past 20 years.

While Pope Francis is known worldwide for his writings on climate change, Silecchia pointed to a 1990 letter Pope John Paul II sent "solely" about environmental concerns.

"I would trace the higher profile of environmental issues, at least in the Catholic community, to this letter and the many initiatives that it inspired," she said.

Still, she said, Pope Francis' 2015 message, "Laudato Si'," was a stronger force to drive attention. "That encyclical was, I believe, a catalyst for greater attention to climate issues in the religious community," she said.

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