Mourning the pope of the planet and the poor

Your weekly newsletter about faith and climate change

April 25, 2025

Pope Francis in a video message released Aug. 30, 2024. (CNS screengrab/Pope's Worldwide Prayer Network)

This is not the newsletter I had planned for Earth Week (April 21–27). I had hoped to remind you about Catholic stories of the first Earth Day (April 22, 1970) and provide an example of meaningful efforts for creation care today in one particular U.S. Catholic diocese. That will have to wait, as our attention has been drawn this week to mourning the pope of the planet and the poor.

I was awakened early Monday morning to several text messages from my colleagues alerting me that Pope Francis had died. By the time I got to my computer, some of them had already been online for hours publishing breaking news stories, commentaries and an obituary, sending our content to readers via newsletters, various social media platforms and app notifications, and appearing on media spots for television and radio stations. NCR's newsroom has been buzzing day and night since.

Whenever I take a moment to pause from my work, the immense loss we're all experiencing hits hard. Francis' papacy was one of many historic firsts, but for me personally, it was the first papacy of my adulthood, the first conclave I watched (from my grad school apartment in Chicago), and the first global church leader I have followed throughout a decade of work in Catholic media (including when Francis visited the United States in 2015 — what a wonderful, whirlwind week).

Francis affirmed the importance of my academic research in ecofeminist theology and influenced the trajectory of my career — from coordinating a diocesan-wide ecological justice conference at St. Michael's College in Vermont in 2017 to my role as NCR's environment editor today. Indeed, if it were not for Pope Francis and his focus on care for creation and integral ecology, I doubt that EarthBeat would even exist.

What he said of his namesake St. Francis of Assisi became true of Francis' own papal legacy: "He is the [pope] of poverty, the [pope] of peace, the [pope] who loves and protects creation."

I am grateful for the spotlight Pope Francis placed on the triple planetary crises of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution. I am grateful for his courage in speaking truth to power, especially leaders of the fossil fuel industry and nations powered by oil money. And I am grateful for how seamlessly he wove the needs of the planet into conversations about our responsibility to care for the poor and most vulnerable, recognize the dignity of all life and protect every single thing God created and called "good."

Francis' legacy is manifold, but it is undeniable that a significant part of his story is shaped by how he viewed the world as an interconnected web of life, with all parts mutually dependent upon each other.

Thank you, Pope Francis, for cultivating a church both grounded in tradition and growing in love.

What else is new on EarthBeat:

Pope Francis had the moral courage to stand up for the Earth and its people

by Christiana Figueres

We need the moral courage that Francis exemplified — a willingness to speak truth to power and to call for radical transformation when it is needed.

On climate, Pope Francis was hard-hitting and hopeful

by Dan Misleh

When a pope had the audacity to name himself after St. Francis — a man of peace, simplicity and creation — I began to dream then of an environmental encyclical.

Pope Francis' magisterial teachings, like his reverence for the gift of creation, will live on

by Michael Sean Winters

Pope Francis was a pastor, first and foremost, and a good pastor teaches. Any pope's most enduring legacy is the body of magisterial teaching they left behind.

In Latin America, Francis' supporters share gratitude, resolve to continue his work

by Rhina Guidos

Latin Americans observed that Pope Francis, the first pope from the new world, brought to the Vatican a new way of talking about God, lifting up causes and convictions that they shared.

Monday Starter: 4 communities join Land Justice Futures effort

by Chris Herlinger, Dan Stockman, UCA News

Plus, cloistered Illinois sisters adopt solar energy; an Indian court denies bail for a nun facing arrest after she was accused of conversion; services held for slain Haitian sisters.

What's happening in other climate news:

A silent majority of the world's people wants stronger climate action. It's time to wake up —Mark Hertsgaard and Kyle Pope for The Guardian

Interior Department to fast-track oil, gas and mining projects —Lisa Friedman for The New York Times

A forthcoming Supreme Court decision could limit agencies' duty to consider environmental harms —Akielly Hu for Grist

The world's biggest companies have caused $28 trillion in climate damage, a new study estimates —Seth Borenstein for the Associated Press

How to encourage more people to talk about climate change —Jeffrey Kluger for TIME

The vegan vs. carnivore narrative distracts from climate action —Jessica Scott-Reid for Sentient

Final Beat:

In the final section of Laudato Si', Pope Francis wrote:

"At the end, we will find ourselves face to face with the infinite beauty of God (cf. 1 Cor 13:12), and be able to read with admiration and happiness the mystery of the universe, which with us will share in unending plenitude. Even now we are journeying towards the sabbath of eternity, the new Jerusalem, towards our common home in heaven. Jesus says: 'I make all things new' (Rev 21:5). Eternal life will be a shared experience of awe, in which each creature, resplendently transfigured, will take its rightful place and have something to give those poor men and women who will have been liberated once and for all."

More than 61,000 people have visited St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City to pay their respects to Pope Francis. Rome's poor will give him his final send-off, reported NCR Vatican correspondent Christopher White.

The pontiff's simple wooden coffin will be sealed on Friday evening (April 25) ahead of his funeral Mass on Saturday (April 26) at 10 a.m. local time.

You can find all of NCR's coverage in this feature series: The Legacy of Pope Francis

Thanks for reading EarthBeat.

Stephanie Clary
Environment Editor
National Catholic Reporter
sclary@ncronline.org