At Christmas, sisters in Vietnam repaired flood-damaged homes
EarthBeat Weekly
Your weekly newsletter about faith and climate change January 9, 2026
 Daughters of Mary of the Immaculate Conception Sr. Mary Teresa Pham Thi Lai (center) distributes Christmas cakes to people affected by natural disasters at her community in Hue, Vietnam, Dec. 23, 2025. (Joachim Pham)
On Christmas Eve, as floodwater stains still marked the walls of his damaged home, 75-year-old Le Cuoc lit candles and offered food in gratitude — not only to heaven and his ancestors, but also to a God he had never celebrated before.
A Confucian follower who lives alone in Hue, central Vietnam, Cuoc marked Christmas for the first time after religious sisters helped him repair his house and survive in the aftermath of devastating disasters. "I understand Christmas now — that God is with people and that we must love one another," he told Joachim Pham, a Vietnam-based journalist reporting for Global Sisters Report this week. "That is what I learned after the sisters helped me." Across Vietnam's flood-battered central provinces, nuns observed Christmas quietly, scaling back decorations and celebrations to redirect resources to those whose homes, crops and livelihoods were swept away by storms and floods. Instead of bright lights and large Nativity scenes, they focused on rebuilding roofs, paving muddy paths and restoring dignity — finding in these acts a deeper meaning of the season, Pham reports. Read more: Vietnamese nuns, disaster victims rebuild Christmas from debris and share hope You may have seen headlines this week about the Trump administration taking steps to withdraw the U.S. from more than 60 United Nations and international agreements and organizations. Among them, the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change — the bedrock treaty under which the Paris Agreement was adopted and that facilitates international climate conferences like the most recent COP30 in Brazil. Watch the pages of EarthBeat on Monday for coverage of Catholic reaction to these planned withdrawals from U.N. accords and international associations, which mark the latest moves by the Trump administration to unwind environmental policies and pull back from actions to address climate change.
What else is new on EarthBeat:by George Cassidy Payne Students at the Jesuit-run school experience how environmental stewardship becomes spiritual practice — where caring for creation is seen as inseparable from caring for neighbors and the oneness in community. Read more here » by Mudita Menona Sodder How can I ignore Christ himself being born this Christmas as a tiny helpless babe when I turn a deaf ear to his whimper in the cry of the poor and the Earth's weakening plight? Read more here » by Brian Roewe With the death of Pope Francis, the introduction of Pope Leo XIV and major shifts in the U.S. away from climate and clean energy policies, there's no doubt 2025 has been a momentous year on the faith-and-environment beat. Read more here »
What's happening in other climate news:
Trump withdrawal from bedrock UN climate treaty raises legal questions —Valerie Volcovici for Reuters
Venezuelan oil brought to the U.S. would be refined in Black Gulf communities —Adam Mahoney for Capital B Trump says Venezuela stole U.S. oil, land and assets. Here's the history. —Tobi Raji and Leo Sands for the Washington Post Oil industry will eye Venezuela warily, experts say —Marianne Lavelle and Georgina Gustin for Inside Climate News As Trump eyes Greenland, what could that mean for island's mineral wealth and environment? —Nicholas Kusnetz for Inside Climate News White House completes plan to curb bedrock environmental law —Matthew Daly for the Associated Press Journey to the melting continent —Raymond Zhong for The New York Times The secret world of animal sleep —Christina Larson, Nicky Forster, Hyojin Yoo, Peter Hamlin and Caleb Diehl for the Associated Press How the planet fared in 2025 — the good, the bad, and the ugly —Matt Simon for Grist
Final Beat:
The beginning of 2026 has seen a swarm of major news stories, and not just on the environmental beat.
We at EarthBeat and NCR of course will follow and report news as it breaks and develops, but we also want to hear from you the readers. What topics, trends or other story possibilities are on your mind? Are there subjects or issues about which you want to learn more?
Let us know by dropping a message at earthbeat@ncronline.org. Your feedback can help shape our coverage in the weeks and months ahead beyond the breaking news and major headlines. As always, thanks for reading EarthBeat.
Brian Roewe
Environment Correspondent
National Catholic Reporter
broewe@ncronline.org
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