CathCAP

About CathCAP

Catholic Climate Action Projects

What is CathCAP: Healing our Common Home?

Catholic Climate Action Projects, or CathCAP, is a new idea for an old question: 

How can individuals and communities of faith actively address the world’s most urgent environmental and social problems?

CathCAP allows individuals, parishes, schools, universities and other communities to do this in a very practical way– by taking direct action against climate change. The idea is simple:

1) Reduce: Individuals and communities work to lower their carbon footprint through lifestyle changes. This includes reducing energy usage from buildings and transportation, reducing meat consumption and single-use plastics, and other practical measures. But it doesn’t stop here!

2) Rethink: Even with these changes, it is difficult to eliminate all personal greenhouse gas emissions. That’s where CathCAP comes in: for the emissions that people cannot reduce, individuals or community members pay a certain amount per ton of greenhouse gases emitted. This so-called “carbon offset” is particularly practical for air and car travel. While it does not eliminate the negative effects of the emissions, the contributed money goes directly towards projects that do have a tangible ecological and social impact. But it doesn’t stop here either!

3) Restore: Communities of faith can create an account to accumulate funds for a specific project that will help reduce emissions directly and heal ecological and social wounds in an integral way. Throughout the process, CathCAP offers resources to support the community effort of learning to care for our common home.

CathCAP can also be a way for individuals, families, and organizations to fulfill some of the goals for those who have committed to the seven-year sustainability goals of the Vatican’s Laudato Si’ Action Platform including: hearing the cry of the Earth, ecological economics, adoption of sustainable lifestyles, and community resilience empowerment.

For individual offsets, CathCAP offers a range of trusted organizations working internationally on projects with holistic ecological and social dimensions.

Whether it’s a local or international project, everyone can do their part by taking practical climate action through CathCAP. This process goes hand in hand with answering the call of Laudato si’ and experiencing a shared ecological conversion.

What is CathCAP's inspiration?

The inspiration for CathCAP comes from Laudato si’: On Care for Our Common Home, the second encyclical letter of Pope Francis, addressed to the Church and “all people of good will.” 

With a uniquely thorough analysis of the signs of the times, Francis is calling the global community to determined action with a passion for justice. Laudato si’sheds light on both the scientific basis and theological and biblical imperative for ecological responsibility. The letter incorporates our current global situation in the context of salvation history and builds on the social teaching of Church expressed by previous popes and national bishops’ conferences around the world.

Laudato si’ is rooted in the spirituality of St. Francis of Assisi, asking us to hear both the “cry of the Earth and the cry of the poor” (49). In other words, we are called to experience an ecological conversion—to encounter our sisters and brothers around the world in new and healing ways.

Who is on the CathCAP Team?

The idea for CathCAP was envisioned by Fr. Michael Agliardo, SJ, with initial support from the Loyola Institute. It is a project of Catholic Climate Covenant with Dan Misleh in the lead, co-sponsored by the Association of US Catholic Priests. Bori Kozek provides program coordination. If you have any questions or comments, you can contact us here 

We look forward to helping you start the process, learning from your feedback, and collaborating with you to make CathCAP a helpful tool for healing our common home together.

Scroll to Top