The climate crisis is a crisis of justice. It knows no borders, yet the dominant political and financial systems operate through a colonial and extractive process rooted in domination. But a turning point is possible.
Comboni Missionaries recently participated in the “Jubilee of Global Climate Reparations,” organized by Taproot Earth. This US-based organization promotes the liberation of Black and Indigenous communities by facilitating a grassroots movement struggling for climate justice. Taproot Earth’s work focuses on:
- Defining Reparations: Facilitating dialogue to establish a reliable and well-founded definition of global climate reparations.
- Building Synergy: Connecting multiracial and multigeographic frontline communities, particularly from the US Gulf South to Appalachia and across the Global South.
- Challenging Systems: Advocating for the human right to stay or move, challenging unjust borders, and promoting collective governance models for financial resources.
The ultimate goal is liberation—to rebuild the world through participation, inclusion in decision-making, and the redistribution of power and resources. While many see 2030 as a point of no return, Taproot Earth views it as a turning point, choosing sustainability over scarcity and the care of creation over predatory extraction.
The Jubilee Initiative in Rome
From March 3 to 6, 2025, community leaders, faith communities, and grassroots movements convened in Rome to advocate for global climate reparations through debt abolition, ecological restoration, and the liberation of communities most severely affected by the climate crisis.
This event was a powerful rejection of the culture of disposability, the extractive economy, and authoritarianism. It promoted an economy of care and the practice of service for the common good.
The themes of the Jubilee resonate with the 2025 Jubilee theme, “Pilgrims of Hope,” giving voice to those who seek a future defined by justice, liberation, and universal solidarity. The gathering provided a historic opportunity for frontline leaders to engage the Church more deeply, calling for concrete action.
The four-day process culminated in a declaration defining climate reparations as the restoration of healthy and balanced relationships with all beings and our shared global ecosystem. Reparative action must begin with those who have benefited most from historical and present-day oppression, requiring debt abolition, restitution for injustices, and the establishment of accountable systems rooted in the liberation of Black and Indigenous peoples.
Proposed Actions and Follow-Up
At the conclusion of the event, frontline community leaders proposed key actions to sustain the movement:
- Form a self-managed grassroots movement.
- Develop a guide on how to engage and take responsibility for reparative action.
- Develop a communication platform to facilitate networking, share progress updates, and establish a database for advocacy efforts.
For their part, Catholic organizations identified two common paths forward:
- Commitment to Decolonization: Promoting educational and training efforts to expose colonial ideologies and advance a decolonial vision, while recognizing the Church’s existing contributions to climate justice.
- Creation of Synergies: Leveraging advocacy efforts through episcopal conferences, religious congregations, and Catholic bodies at COP30 (Belém, Brazil, November 2025), and strengthening collaboration with community leaders.
Comboni Missionaries’ Path Forward
As Comboni Missionaries, our follow-up commits us to both the decolonization agenda and the advocacy perspective, aligning with our latest General Chapter’s call to re-qualify our missionary presence and ministry.
- Decolonizing Mission: We are undertaking a critical appraisal of our mission practices, focusing on specific pastoral approaches to develop ministerial practices that move away from colonial legacies and integrate dimensions of climate justice and integral ecology.
- Advocacy for COP30: We have endorsed the Climate Justice Campaign promoted by VIVAT, which makes four key calls to COP30. We plan to be present in Belém and host a Forum of the Comboni Family on integral ecology in connection with the work of ecclesial and popular movements gathering there.
We are also contributing to strengthening the advocacy dimension of the Laudato Si’ Action Platform, in which we have enrolled as a Congregation. The work of liberation requires making common cause—and the time to act is now.
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