SEATTLE — A cardinal from the Vatican and NBC’s chief environmental affairs correspondent will join faith, business and community leaders, students, researchers, indigenous communities and others for a climate action summit hosted by the Archdiocese of Seattle and Seattle University in July 2024.

“Together for Our Common Home: A Climate Action Summit” is being held “in recognition of the growing threat of climate change and our responsibility to care for the common good,” the archdiocese said in a Sept. 13 news release. The announcement came during the Season of Creation (Sept. 1 to Oct. 4), an annual ecumenical observance focused on caring for the environment through prayer and action.

“Now is the time to hear and respond to the cry of the Earth, the cry of the poor and the cry of our youth,” Archbishop Paul D. Etienne said in the news release.

Archbishop Etienne developed the concept for the conference after starting a similar event during his time as archbishop of Anchorage, according to the release.

The summit here, scheduled July 9-11, 2024, will feature “inspirational and influential” speakers who will “share the latest environmental breakthroughs, tackle the tough issues facing sustainability, make the connection between the Earth and the poorest among us, and challenge people to authentically care for our common home and for each other,” the news release said. 

The event will kick off with an address at St. James Cathedral by Cardinal Michael Czerny, a Jesuit who serves as prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development. He has promoted social justice in Canada, Latin America, Africa and Rome and has issued calls to be for people to be “responsible citizens” and protect the Earth.

Cardinal Michael Czerny, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, will speak at St. James Cathedral in July 2024 as part of the “Together for Our Common Home: A Climate Action Summit,” co-hosted by the Archdiocese of Seattle and Seattle University. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)

The conference at Seattle University will include two days of presentations emceed by Anne Thompson, chief environmental affairs correspondent for NBC News. So far, speakers will include Mary Kipp, president and CEO of Puget Sound Energy, and Kara Hurst, vice president of worldwide sustainability at Amazon.

Archbishop Etienne and Eduardo Peñalver, president of Seattle University, are aligned on the need for a climate summit, the release said.  

“In the spirit of good stewardship of our common home, we hope to bring about a necessary ecological conversion, which leads to greater efforts to work together for the good of creation,” Archbishop Etienne said.

Collaborating with the archdiocese on the summit “is a part of our deep commitment to the Earth,” Peñalver said. “Our students, faculty and staff, alumni and community deserve nothing less than our full commitment to the future of our planet,” he added.

Conference organizers are securing additional speakers and corporate sponsors. For more information, contact Joe Orlando at Seattle University, [email protected], or Patrick Barredo at St. James Cathedral, [email protected].

Read the full news release here.