Church leaders pledge to divest from coal

Several Church leaders across the country have pledged to divest their resources from coal, in line with the fifth year of Pope Francis’ encyclical “Laudato Si (Praise be to you),” which called for swift and unified global action to address the ecological crisis.

In a manifesto issued on Thursday, at least 28 leaders and treasurers of religious congregations committed to forbid assets under their care from being used to fund destructive industries, especially coal.

“We believe that coal, the dirtiest of all fossil fuels and the single biggest contributor to the climate emergency, goes against everything that the Church stands for—most especially the preservation of life and dignity of the human person and the care for God’s creation,” said the signatories who include Bishop Broderick Pabillo of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Manila, Bishop Gerry Alminaza of the Diocese of San Carlos, Fr. Angelito Cortez of the Association of Major Religious Superiors in the Philippines and Sister Marciana Mazaredo of the Augustinian Missionaries of the Philippines.

“We today find ourselves amid two global crises that reveal the consequences of decisions that fail to place the health of our people and the planet first, the COVID-19 pandemic and the climate emergency, which both call for the bringing about of a better world,” the religious leaders wrote in the manifesto. —Jhesset O. Enano