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Faculty panel on Pope Francis’ encyclical addresses climate change

Pope Francis’ Encyclical Laudato Si’ is serving as worldwide ammunition for humanity to see that we are the cause of climate change, and that it is our responsibility to change it.

“We need to see that what is at stake is our own dignity,” Pope Francis writes in the encyclical, which was released at the Vatican in June. “Leaving an inhabitable planet to future generations is, first and foremost, up to us.”

Last Tuesday, Elizabeth Gandolfo, an assistant professor of Catholic and Latin American studies at Wake Forest University, and three other colleagues, addressed nearly 160 people in Kulynych Auditorium to decipher how climate change is related to morals and ethical obligation in the context of the Catholic Church.