EPA chief talks climate change with the Vatican

Environmental Protection Agency chief Gina McCarthy met with Vatican officials working to draft Pope Francis’ climate change encyclical on Friday, applauding The Holy See for engaging Catholics on the issue.

McCarthy met with officials to discuss working with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and nongovernmental organizations to put a spotlight on the need for action on climate change, according to a readout of the meeting from EPA. 

{mosads}McCarthy met with Cardinal Peter Turkson and Tebaldo Vinciguerra, the director for environmental affairs at the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, among others. 

“I think the most important thing that we can do, working with the pope, is to try to remind ourselves that this is really about protecting natural resources that human beings rely on, and that those folks that are most vulnerable — that the church has always been focused on, those in poverty and low income — are the first that are going to be hit and impacted by a changing climate,” McCarthy told reporters after the meeting, according to The Associated Press.

Francis is expected to declare more action must be taken by global leaders to combat climate change in his upcoming encyclical. 

— This story was corrected at 3:27 p.m. to reflect that Gina McCarthy only met with Vatican officials during her visit.