On Monday, 8 September 2025, Caritas Internationalis, CIDSE and Pax Christi International, supported by SCIAF, hosted a special webinar to launch a significant joint statement entitled ‘Pilgrims of Hope for a Just and Peaceful World‘.
The webinar was held during the Jubilee Year of Hope and the Season of Creation, a time when the Church renewed its call to care for our common home.
A call for Peace and Climate Justice
At the heart of the statement lies a simple yet urgent truth:
“There can be no true peace without climate justice, and no climate justice without peace.”
The statement warned that ecological collapse, violent conflict, and persistent poverty were not separate problems, but rather ‘entangled threads of a shared global threat’. It challenged the logic of profit-driven systems, such as those in the fossil fuel, arms, and financial industries, which thrived on “instability, inequality, relentless extraction and oligarchic cronyism”.
Yet it also pointed to a path forward: “The moral imperative was clear but the tools were within reach.” Drawing on Catholic Social Teaching, the statement called for solidarity, debt justice, an end to fossil fuel subsidies, reduced military spending, and inclusive decision-making that empowered vulnerable and frontline communities.
The launch brought together voices from across the Church and beyond. As the statement reminded us, ‘Nonviolence, both as a method and a style, provided the foundation for how we confronted the challenges of our time’. Communities that resisted deforestation, extractive industries, and war showed that pursuing peace and caring for the environment went hand in hand.
A step toward COP30
The event was also a milestone on the Catholic journey toward COP30 in Belém, Brazil, offering a platform to witness the moral leadership and grassroots commitment needed for global climate and peace action.
The statement
Below is the full statement in English, French and Spanish:
The full recording of the event on YouTube is available here: https://youtu.be/FjtyuT5SJoo
Cover photo: Ethiopian farmers. Credits: James Cave, SCIAF
