Earth Equity News

Pope's Climate Push at Odds with U.S. Church's Energy Investments. By Richard Valdmanis, Reuters, 8/12/2015. Despite Pope Francis' strong words on climate and environmental protection being central to the Catholic mission, "some of the largest American Catholic organizations have millions of dollars invested in energy companies, from hydraulic fracturing firms to oil sands producers, according to their own disclosures, through many portfolios intended to fund church operations and pay clergy salaries.

This discrepancy between the church's leadership and its financial activities in the United States has prompted at least one significant review of investments. The Archdiocese of Chicago, America's third largest by Catholic population, told Reuters it will reexamine its more than $100 million worth of fossil fuel investments."