Friars to take part in global climate meeting
Author: Maria Hayes
Date Published: November 06, 2025
Franciscans are joining world leaders, diplomats, scientists, business leaders, activists and non-governmental organizations from Nov. 10 to 21 in Belém, Brazil, to discuss actions to address climate change and stop rising global temperatures.
Friars from the Province of Our Lady of Guadalupe will be among the thousands of people attending COP 30, where they will unite their voices with other Franciscan and Catholic groups to advocate for policies that will protect vulnerable communities, restore ecological balance and uphold the dignity of all creation.
What is COP30?
COP30 is the 30th annual meeting of the “Conference of the Parties,” the nearly 200 countries (“parties”) that signed the 1992 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the parent treaty to the 2015 Paris Agreement.
In simpler terms, COP brings together almost every country on earth to discuss collective actions to address climate change. World leaders, diplomats, climate scientists, business leaders, young people, advocates and non-governmental organizations like Franciscans International collaborate to share insights and encourage global climate action.
What will be discussed at COP30?
COP30 will focus on the actions required to limit the global temperature rise to 1.5C above pre-industrial temperatures, which scientists believe will help lessen the impact of ecological disasters.
Some parties will provide updates on their national climate action plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The Paris Agreement requires plans to be updated every five years with increasingly higher ambition.
Parties will also discuss the progress on financial pledges made at COP29. Rich nations pledged to contribute at least $300 billion annually to finance developing countries as they seek to protect themselves against climate disasters and share in the growing clean energy industry. Developing countries impact the climate less than rich nations but tend to suffer more from the consequences of climate disasters.
Why are Franciscans participating in COP?
Eight hundred years ago, St. Francis of Assisi wrote the “Canticle of the Creatures” – a poem that invited humanity to form a new relationship with the created universe. His belief that all of creation is interconnected and sacred laid the cornerstone for what we call integral ecology. Today the Canticle calls us to reevaluate our relationships with each other and the world around us: from possessing creation to caring for our common home.
COP seeks to transform humanity’s relationship with the natural world with a special focus on those who are most vulnerable to the effects of climate change: the poor.
A recent U.N. study shows that nearly 8 in 10 people living in multidimensional poverty are directly exposed to climate hazards such as extreme heat, flooding, drought or air pollution. While they contribute the least to global warming, they suffer most from its consequences.
To care for the poor, we must also address the climate crisis facing our planet.
“The ‘Canticle of the Creatures’ serves as a moral and spiritual call for us to engage with all of the humanity and creation to do no harm and to promote the common good,” said Br. Michael Perry, OFM, director of the Laudato Si’ Center for Integral Ecology at Siena University and president of the board of Franciscans International. He and Br. Jacek Orzechowski, OFM, and Br. Joe Rozansky, OFM, will be among the Franciscans in attendance.
COP meetings “seek to translate [these values] into concrete, high-level actions that are measurable, effective and capable of helping us to work together to reduce our human impact on the life systems of the planet.”
What do Franciscans hope to accomplish at COP30?
The friars of the Province of Our Lady of Guadalupe hope to join their local efforts with those of other Franciscans, Christians and people of good will to support national and international policies and agreements that will keep the world from reaching “tipping points” beyond which Earth’s life systems may not be able to recover.
The friars also seek to raise awareness of the Franciscan-Christian responsibility to commit to ecological conversion – to learn about what is happening to the natural world and to commit to respond in ways that are rooted in science, ethical and Franciscan inspired.
“Our participation at COP 30 is an effort to make concrete the invitation of Pope Francis and Pope Leo: to put our faith into action for the sake of life,” said Br. Michael. “Ecological conversion and our response to climate change are life issues: they are about the survival of life on this tiny, fragile planet we call ‘home’.”
How can those not attending COP30 contribute?
During COP30, Catholics and people of goodwill are encouraged to:
1. Open their mind and heart to the call to ecological conversion.
Inspired by St. Francis’s Canticle of the Creatures, Pope Francis invited the Church to embrace ecological conversion – to recognize the interconnectedness of all creation, leading to a new way of being and acting in the world. Global Franciscan leaders echoed his sentiments in a letter to the Franciscan Family sent on Oct. 28 in advance of COP30.
To deepen their understanding of ecological conversion, people can:
Learn more about the relationship between the Canticle and Integral Ecology from Franciscan scholar Br. William Short, OFM, in this video
Gather a group of people to study “Laudato Si’,” Pope Francis’s encyclical on caring for our common home.
Learn how to engage more deeply in the search for ecological conversion by exploring resources from the Laudato Si’ Center for Integral Ecology at Siena University.
Attend webinars offered by Catholic Climate Covenant and the Laudato Si’ Movement to explore concrete solutions to the climate crisis.
2. Join existing climate movements and put their faith into action.
Catholic climate movements – such as the Laudato Si’ Movement, Catholic Climate Covenant, Franciscan Action Network and Franciscans International – are working to keep the global community from reaching the “tipping points” that threaten to increase the frequency of ecological disasters.
Additional opportunities for advocacy will be shared in the coming weeks.
The photo used with this article is courtesy of Sergio Moraes/COP30 Brasil Amazonia/PR.