The climate emergency calls for a transformation of both head and heart – the need to build bridges between the brute facts of science and the willingness to embrace new ways of living make this a time of opportunity for the Church

We urgently need engineers of the soul – men and women with the skills needed to build bridges from our inner, secret lives to the hard realities of a climate-stressed world. These new Franciscans will connect the places where love and passion dwell to a planet in crisis.

The Pope has joined those who have declared a “climate emergency”. He has condemned the human causes of climate change as acts of “brutal injustice” towards the poor and future generations.

Bridges already exist, but they are frail. We need stronger, expanding, each-way highways along which the hard facts about climate change can be transmitted to our souls and translated into a profound desire to change the way we live. Only when external realities meet inner acceptance will our actions brim with integrity and commitment. And the work doesn’t stop there.