During a January East Coast snowstorm, 18 diocesan representatives gathered in person in Washington D.C. to discuss how faith called them to respond to the climate crisis.
Starting on Friday, Jan. 23, Washington D.C. declared a state of emergency. The nor’easter dropped more than half a foot of snow on the capital. On top of the snow, sleet rained down and froze into what local agencies described as “snowcrete.” The Washington Post reported that the accumulated snow and ice were equivalent to 20 inches of snowfall.
The representatives of these 18 dioceses—appointed by their bishops—were unfazed by the difficulties posed by the winter weather.
“I had an Uber pick me up from the airport. He said, ‘Its emergency travel only,’” Amber Henning, the in-house counsel for the Diocese of Great Falls-Billings recalls. The cohort’s gathering began on Tuesday, as D.C.’s state of emergency was still in effect. Henning noticed the city was sheltering indoors as she navigated it. “It was dead quiet, nobody was out, it was very different,” she says in a phone interview with U.S. Catholic.
Despite the challenges, organizers and attendees were inspired by the commitment that the diocesan leaders showed to attending the weekend together. Out of the 19 dioceses in the cohort, 18 representatives attended in person, despite the flight delays, long layovers, and travel difficulties.
“People were so committed to coming that they arrived late, had long layovers in which they had to spend nights in the airports in strange cities,” says Anna Johnson, the North America director for the Laudato Si’ Movement. The Laudato Si’ Movement is an international movement that supports Catholics working for ecological conversion and concrete actions for sustainability. Johnson served as one of the presenters at the cohort’s conference and as an ongoing mentor for the cohort members.
Meeting during a natural disaster was a fitting backdrop for the work they were doing, Johnson says. “Being in the midst of the ecological crisis set the tone,” Johnson says, highlighting the impact of the crisis on lives and livelihoods around the world. It emphasized the necessity of caring better for our common home. “It offered a deep sense of connection and purpose to what we were doing in the midst of it,” Johnson says in a Zoom interview with U.S. Catholic.
Despite the blizzard, multiple attendees described the gathering as a peaceful and inspiring encounter. “It was a really prayerful experience,” she says.
The conference was the initial meeting of the Laudato Si’ Leadership Cohort, an initiative of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). The cohort, committed to training diocesan leaders in how to implement Laudato Si’ (On Care for Our Common Home) in their diocese, was the brainchild of Joshua Van Cleef and Emily Schumacher-Novak.
In early 2025, the Catholic Extension Society, which supports Catholic mission dioceses and rural dioceses, asked Van Cleef if he would be willing to guide diocesan leaders in creating Laudato Si’ action plans in mission dioceses around the country.
The Catholic Extension Society supports the church’s work in poor and rural mission dioceses throughout the United States. Van Cleef is the director of peace and justice for one of those dioceses, the Diocese of Lexington, Kentucky, which spans the Appalachian regions of Eastern Kentucky. Van Cleef and his family live on a 50-acre farm called Magnificat Farm in the Appalachian area of Kentucky.
Pope Francis announced that the Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development was launching a seven-year Laudato Si’ Action Platform in May 2021. The platform, created to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the encyclical Laudato Si‘, aims to promote “ecological conversion” and a plan of action to foster sustainable practices in church institutions across the globe.
Since then, thousands of dioceses, universities, and schools have made their own Laudato Si’ action plans. They can be both prophetic and eminently practical. For example, Van Cleef says the Diocese of Lexington, made up of 59 parishes, made the commitment two years ago to a goal of net zero carbon emissions by 2030. “That was pretty astounding,” says Dan Misleh, executive director of the Catholic Climate Covenant.
“Given the right support, all dioceses can make a plan that fits their priorities,” Van Cleef says. “Every diocese can do it.” When Van Cleef received this invitation to create a leadership cohort, he reached out to Schumacher-Novak, an associate director at the USCCB’s Office of Justice and Peace. He wanted to make this leadership training available to all U.S. dioceses, not just rural or mission dioceses.
The Crimsonbridge Foundation provided the financial support to broaden the invitation to every U.S. diocese. Over the course of 2025, the cohort program “came together pretty quickly—it kind of snowballed,” Schumacher-Novak says in a Zoom interview with U.S. Catholic. “There was lots of interest.”
Schumacher-Novak says that the program’s goal is to give dioceses looking to create an action plan for ecological conversion and care for our common home a strategy for moving forward, together, as a diocese. “There’s a lot of moving pieces in a diocese,” Schumacher-Novak says. “It takes intentional engagement and corporate discernment” for these strategies to find success.
Far from a one-size-fits-all solution or plan, the Laudato Si’ Leadership Cohort encourages diocesan leaders to facilitate a communal discernment process in their dioceses of what steps toward a sustainable stewardship of their earth, land, and resources are possible for them, including plans to address the unique urgencies their dioceses face. Van Cleef emphasizes the importance of empowering parishes and building their capacity to do the work of ecological conversion.
“The parish is where most people experience the church; the parish is where most people experience Laudato Si’,” Van Cleef says in a Zoom interview with U.S. Catholic. “It’s a key way to engage the faithful.”
Although many more dioceses were interested, Schumacher-Novak says, their team selected 19 diocesan representatives for this first cohort. The diocesan representatives came from a variety of offices and roles. Van Cleef says they had a diocesan vicar general present, and representatives from diocesan offices for sustainability, family life, properties and ground, and legal representatives.
Van Cleef and Schumacher-Novak planned an opening conference in D.C. for delegates appointed by the bishops to meet one another, to gain resources, hear from experts, share opportunities and challenges, and enjoy a few days of discussion, prayerful meditation and planning.
Although Mother Nature delivered more than half a foot of snow to D.C. the weekend before they met, both attendees and organizers were moved and energized by their gathering.
The spiritual aspect was essential for Jim Jahnz, the representative of the Diocese of Providence, Rhode Island. “The work that we’re doing in the world has to be grounded in our spirituality, the foundation for our house to be built on,” Jahnz says in a phone interview with U.S. Catholic.
Jahnz, the secretary of Catholic Charities and social ministries for the Diocese of Providence, was also inspired by his cohort members’ commitment to gathering in person, despite the state of emergency and travel challenges. He was also inspired by the presence of a representative from the Vatican, Monsignor Robert Vitillo of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, who attended the three-day meeting.
“Walking into the room with Monsignor Vitillo there, seeing people from around the country in this cohort of 19 dioceses, it was very heartening,” Jahnz says. “There was lots of promise with the leadership in this room.”
Schumacher-Novak says the presence of the global church, the Vatican Dicastery, the bishops, and the USCCB fueled a gathering that was a “really supportive and inspiring couple of days together.”
After this first conference, the cohort is split into groups who meet with a mentor each month as they craft their action plans for their diocese.
The cohort’s makeup was geographically diverse, and each diocese brings unique challenges and concerns to its planning stage. The Diocese of Great Falls-Billings, for example, consists of 97 parishes spread across approximately 94,000 square miles—one parish per 10,000 square miles of land. On the other hand, the Diocese of Providence represents 119 parishes in the United States’ smallest state, Rhode Island, which is under 2,000 square miles.
Henning says that for the Diocese of Great Falls-Billings, their emphasis is formation and education. For a highly politicized issue like climate change and ecological destruction, Henning wants to bring the conversation back to the action faith demands from us. “We have to do this because we are protecting this gift from God; it’s imperative for our survival and for future generations,” she says.
Henning notes that the climate crisis is an issue young people are concerned about, and it can be a vital form of evangelization in Catholic schools and summer camps.
“I’m Catholic today because of our stances on social justice,” Henning says. She sees young people in Montana activated to work for the environment. “Having that youth involvement is so important. It’s their future too, so how can we give them the tools to voice their thoughts?” she says.
“This is our faith, this isn’t an idea or a plan, this is part of who we are as church,” says Jahnz from the Diocese of Providence. “The work that we’re doing in the world has to be grounded in our spirituality, a solid foundation. For our house to be built on.”
The cohort will convene again in October to celebrate the Feast of St. Francis and to formally celebrate their work on their action plans. The USCCB plans on holding at least two more years of leadership cohorts for more diocesan representatives. The cohort, for many of the organizers and attendees, demonstrated the U.S. bishops’ commitment to turning ecological conversion into concrete action.
“We don’t need more statements on creation, we need more action, we need saints and people to live them out,” Johnson says. “We can no longer postpone this call to conversion.”
Image: Unsplash/NASA
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