ROME, ITALY – From the Gulf Coast of Louisiana, to the Appalachian Mountains of Pennsylvania, from the Amazon Rainforest to the Congo Basin, from the Caribbean Islands to the shores of West Africa, the call for Global Climate Reparations is echoing across the world. Inspired by Pope Francis’ call for the Catholic Church’s Jubilee year to be a time for unwavering renewal and repair, frontline communities and faith based leaders gathered in Rome to strengthen a movement that will carry forward through the 20th commemoration of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and onto the global stage at COP 30 in Brazil. This convening was not just a moment but a commitment to collective action, urging faith communities and global leaders to acknowledge past harms, atone for injustices, and take tangible steps toward repair.
“This isn’t just about gathering; it’s about how we gather,” said Tinaye Mabara of Kids for Climate Action in Botswana, Zimbabwe. “And in a moment as urgent as this, the way we come together matters just as much as the solutions we seek.”
The Frontline Peoples’ Jubilee Convening on Global Climate Reparations was a historic gathering. Frontline community leaders, global organizers, and faith leaders came together rooted in a spirit of hope, an ethic of accountability, and with an intention of alignment often missing in today’s society. Together we built solidarity across borders, witnessed testimonies of harm and resistance, and identified real solutions for repair. This work does not end here. Throughout the Jubilee Year and beyond, we invite faith-based communities and institutions to join us in advancing Global Climate Reparations by following the frontlines.
With 100 participants from 24 countries and one colonized territory—including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Tanzania, Gambia, Senegal, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Cabo Verde, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Brazil, Colombia, Uruguay, Antigua & Barbuda, Haiti, Canada, Italy, France, Ireland, Borinken, and the US—this convening reflected the true global scale of the call for climate reparations. Language justice was a key component, with simultaneous translation provided in English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, and Italian.
ACKNOWLEDGING THE CHURCH’S ROLE
During the convening, participants recognized the Church’s significant contributions in advancing climate justice and commended the leadership of Pope Francis. At the same time, they also acknowledged the Church’s role in causing harm that has broken our relationships with each other and the Earth, calling on the Church to take meaningful steps to reconcile with its history this Jubilee Year so we can all move toward healing and repair.
Participants acknowledged that:
- The Catholic Church has used Church teachings and laws such as the Doctrine of Discovery to legitimize and justify the theft of land and labor through colonization, the trans-Atlantic slave trade, and the extraction of land.
- The Church’s teachings and practices often commodified and extracted land and resources, disrupting and destroying ecologies and cultures.
- The Church became a key service provider in many communities and sometimes withdrew, leaving critical gaps in resources and support.
- The Church created and perpetuated ideologies that set a global standard rooted in colonialism. Extractivism, dehumanization, commodification, the sacredness of private property, race, and the erasing of culture and Indigenous spirituality.
- The Church has built itself as a global institution with power and resources accumulated from stolen land and labor.
“Saber que não estamos sozinhos em nosso trabalho, mas que existem pessoas fazendo coisas incríveis em outros lugares do mundo, que se juntam a nossa atuação local. Um sentimento de poder coletivo, força comunitária.” (Portuguese to English translation: Knowing that we are not alone in our work, but that there are people doing incredible things in other parts of the world who join our local efforts. A feeling of collective power and community strength.)
– Leon Souza, Casa Galileia, Goiânia, Brazil
A PATH TO REPAIR
The Church has an opportunity to advance repair, restore justice, and live into the spirit of the Jubilee, just as Pope Francis has called for in his message of ecological and economic justice. Despite the historic harms, the Catholic Church has also been a pathway for social justice in many frontline spaces. Pope Francis’ moral leadership in a time of planetary and social crisis is an opportunity for movements to align. In Laudato Si’, Pope Francis stated, “The exploitation of the planet has already exceeded acceptable limits and we still have not solved the problem of poverty.” He has urged the Church to reject the structures of greed and extraction that have devastated frontline communities. Now is the time for the Church to answer this call and commit to concrete actions.
The Church can Lead Solutions by:
- Apologize for the Doctrine of Discovery and all Church teachings that justified and legitimized ideologies that broke our relationship to each other and creation.
- Advance a decolonial, re-indigenized ethic of Catholic Social Teaching and practices that recognizes Black and Indigenous spirituality, cultures, and their relationships with nature and share its access to resources and research with communities.
- Make transparent Church assets and return land with the intention of re-matriation, indigenous sovereignty, and collective stewardship.
- Provide financial reparations to communities experiencing the oppressive legacies the Church has contributed to. One practical act of reparation is for the church to tithe (10%) of its funds (both at the Vatican but also the Church in the Global North) to a Climate Reparations Fund that is governed by the frontlines.
- Use its political position of power to advocate at the Nation-State for laws and interventions to protect land and water stewards, fight against extraction of land, and advance laws to define and protect the human right of migrants.
“This Jubilee year has given us the opportunity to examine the divine and human sides of the Church, be grateful for her good works and also express our disappointment to help us heal and reconcile with ourselves and with the Church so that we can live in peace and freedom. This pilgrimage in Rome in this Jubilee Year, Pilgrim of Hope, invites us to forgiveness,reconciliation, conversion, solidarity, hope, justice, commitment, unity and peace. We can only find true healing if we have the courage to express our pain, forgive and reconcile to liberate us to start anew as expressed in Leviticus 25:10.”
– Sr. Maamalifar M. Poreku MSOLA, Executive Co-Secretary JPIC Commission USG-UISG, Rome, Italy
The Community can Lead Solutions by:
- Creating models of collective self-governance, re-indigenization of lands, and sharing a culture of abundance.
- Healing the relationships between humans and land by advancing education and practices rooted in spirituality, Indigenous and local culture, and environmental stewardship.
- Building leadership capacity from the ground up to transform the balance of power between frontline communities and global institutions, ensuring the full implementation of climate reparations, land stewardship, and the care of creation and humanity.
THE PATH FORWARD FROM ROME, TO THE GULF SOUTH, TO BELÉM
This is just the beginning. The calls for Global Climate Reparations will not end in Rome. The movement will travel to Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama for the 20th Commemoration of Hurricane Katrina, shedding light on the lessons from the largest climate migration in US history. The storm displaced more than 1.5 million people, forcing hundreds and thousands from their homes–many of whom never returned home. From there, the frontline vision for climate justice finance will take center stage at COP 30 in Belém, Brazil, where world leaders will be urged to cancel the crushing debt of climate-vulnerable nations and commit to a just and equitable climate finance goal that truly meets the needs of frontline communities. While the United States government has historically challenged progress and often dismisses the urgent call for climate justice, we know action is needed at home and beyond our political borders. The frontline communities from the Gulf South, Appalachia, and across the Globe continue to join together in solidarity, action, and vision.
A CALL TO FAITH-BASED COMMUNITIES TO JOIN US
The Church must lead by action this Jubilee Year. Acknowledging harm, atoning for past and present injustices, and committing to the work of repair. Faith-based communities worldwide are urged to adopt the Global Climate Reparations Statement, following the leadership of frontline communities in making climate reparations real. The statement reads as follows:
“[Global] Climate reparations is the restoration of healthy and balanced relationships with all that comprise a shared global ecosystem. Reparative action begins with those who benefit most from the historic and current systems of oppression. It requires the abolition of debt, restitution for injustice and the establishment of accountable systems rooted in Black and Indigenous liberation for all oppressed people and future generations”.
“Amidst the climate crisis and ongoing social disasters, now more than ever, we need to gather in the spirit of love that can produce hope and liberation. We convened frontline and Catholic Church leaders in Rome in the spirit of a Holy Year of Jubilee to identify actionable steps to repair the broken relationships with each other and the Earth. While the institutional Church’s past actions have created harm, we are also witnesses to Pope Francis’ visionary spirit and teachings of Ladauto Si and Ladauto Deum as well as his calls for peace, the abolition of debt, the rights of migrants, the critique of extractivism, and commitment to care for creation. These are all deeply aligned with the frontline vision for climate reparations. We look forward to implementing collective solutions of repair with the Catholic Church as we advance a world where we can all live, rest, and thrive in the places we love.”
– Anthony Giancatarino, Taproot Earth, Philadelphia, PA
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ABOUT TAPROOT EARTH
Taproot Earth builds power and cultivates solutions among frontline communities across the US Gulf South, Appalachia, and the global Black Diaspora, advancing climate justice through Black Liberation and democracy. At Taproot Earth, our sights are set on the liberation horizon, which shares an arc with the practice of the Jubilee. Click here to learn more and get involved. For questions, please email gcrjubilee@taproot.earth.
Media Contact: Jade Jacobs
Email: jjacobs@taproot.earth
Phone Number: (985) 259-7680
Organization Website: www.taproot.earth
