Divestment as Mission Fidelity: Catholic Fossil Fuel Divestment

About This Event

Catholic institutions are called to advance God's kingdom of justice, peace, and sustainability. To live this mission faithfully, the Catholic Church has recognized human-caused climate change as an urgent moral issue and repeatedly urged its institutions to divest from fossil fuels. Although the Vatican has divested to lead by example, many Catholic institutions are slow to take this action. This presentation will outline the theological foundations of fossil fuel divestment, address misperceptions about this commitment, and provide concrete strategies for those who feel called to organize and advocate for this action. The presentation will draw from the speakers' observations of successful Catholic divestment efforts at Creighton University and the Catholic Theological Society of America. It will also suggest that fossil fuel divestment should never occur in isolation, but always be complemented by institutional commitments to science-based greenhouse gas emission reduction targets.

About the Speakers: 

Daniel R. DiLeo, PhD is an assistant professor and director of the Justice and Peace Studies Program at Creighton University. He specializes in Catholic social teaching and climate change, with focus on Pope Francis’s Laudato Si’ and Laudate Deum. In 2022, he co-authored the Catholic Theological Society of America (CTSA) ad hoc Fossil Fuel Divestment Review Committee Report and chaired the Climate Justice Committee that enacted the CTSA’s divestment commitment. He is also a member of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities’ Laudato Si’ Commission and authored recommendations for how schools can take climate action aligned with their Catholic, Jesuit mission. Since 2009, Dr. DiLeo has served as consultant with Catholic Climate Covenant of which the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is a founding member. He earned his PhD in theological ethics and Master of Theological Studies from Boston College and his BA in sociology from Cornell University (magna cum laude).

Erin Lothes, Ph.D., is the executive director of Bethany Center Hudson Valley, an ecological education center in New York. She is author of Inspired Sustainability: Planting Seeds for Action (Orbis 2016) and The Paradox of Christian Sacrifice: The Loss of Self, The Gift of Self (Herder and Herder, 2007), as well as many articles on faith-based environmentalism and energy ethics and a commentary for the Orbis Books publication of Pope Francis's Laudate Deum.  Dr. Lothes was a tenured associate professor of theology at St. Elizabeth’s University, until resigning to lead the Laudato Si Animators Program with the Laudato Si Movement. She has been a long-time collaborator and divestment activist with many interfaith environmental coalitions such as GreenFaith, the Forum on Religion and Ecology at Yale, and the Center for Earth Ethics at Union Theological Seminary, where she is presently a visiting scholar. She is also an ecclesial affiliate with the Laudato Si Research Institute, Campion Hall at Oxford University.