The sun shone on Catholic Charities, literally, on Oct. 17, 2019 as then-Archbishop Wilton Gregory of Washington blessed a solar array being installed on five acres of the agency’s land surrounding the Missionaries of Charity’s Gift of Peace home. The array of 5,072 panels, which was operational by early 2020, was described by organizers as the largest such solar project built by that point in Washington, D.C.
“The Lord gave us a beautiful day to celebrate something pretty special for us,” said Msgr. John Enzler, then the president and CEO of Catholic Charities of The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington at the ceremony. Overhead on that blustery fall day, sunlight shone through a bank of clouds interspersed across a bright blue sky, one day after rain drenched the Washington area.
Dignitaries present included Washington’s archbishop and D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, who were joined by representatives of Catholic groups and by more than two dozen of Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity sisters who care for the poor, elderly and sick at the neighboring home.
The project’s partners included Catholic Charities which was leasing the land, IGS Solar which was financing the project, and Solar Energy Services, the general contractor constructing the array. Catholic Energies – a program of the Catholic Climate Covenant based in Washington, D.C. – was the project’s developer. The array would go on to generate about 2.35 million kilowatt-hours of energy per year, and the proceeds offset nearly all of the energy costs of Catholic Charities’ 12 properties in the District of Columbia.
In remarks at the ceremony, then-Archbishop Gregory called the project “a great expression of the collaborative spirit of this local Church” in working together with industry experts and community members “to make this dream possible.” He also noted how it was a work of faith.
“We are also here engaged in an act of prayer,” the archbishop said, pointing out how St. Francis is credited with writing the Canticle of Sun, a prayer of thanksgiving to God for the gift of creation.
Then-Archbishop Gregory added, “It’s not simply political, social or economic action we’re taking. We’re praising God today in prayer… for the gift of the sun that shines on us, and more importantly, the Son that saves us.”
In a 2025 interview, Msgr. Enzler praised the cardinal’s support for the project, saying, “He was known in Atlanta as an environmental leader, and he was so proud to be present as we dedicated five acres of a field to solar energy. Without his leadership, that would not have happened.”
Before being installed as the archbishop of Washington in May 2019 and being elevated to the College of Cardinals the next year, Cardinal Gregory served as the archbishop of Atlanta, where he led that archdiocese in implementing an action plan based on Pope Francis’s 2015 encyclical on the environment, Laudato Si’, On Care for Our Common Home.
Then as Washington’s archbishop, Cardinal Gregory in 2021 led the launching of an action plan titled, “Laudato Si’: Embarking on a Seven-Year Journey Promoting an Integral Ecology in The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington.” That action plan, also based on Pope Francis’s Laudato Si’ environmental encyclical, emphasizes practical ways that parishes, Catholic schools and institutions, individuals and families can care for creation, drawing on science and inspired by the social teachings of the Catholic Church.
The action plan, which can be found online, also includes catechetical and liturgical resources, curriculum guides for Catholic schools and religious education classes, and suggestions for how to start a parish “Green Team.” Sections of the plan suggest steps that individuals, families, Churches, schools and organizations can take to limit pollution, reduce consumption of water and electricity and to protect natural resources.
The plan offers a call to people of faith to “embrace environmental science and the science of climate change to protect and preserve the environment for future generations because the Earth is God’s wondrous creation and gift to humanity.”
Crafted for the people of the Archdiocese of Washington, the Laudato Si’ action plan encourages parishes, Catholic schools and the faithful to work toward an integral ecology – the concept in Pope Francis’s encyclical that connects caring for all human beings with concern for the environment.
In his introductory letter to the plan, Cardinal Gregory noted that it “is for all of us! We are all called to protect our common home according to our ability and means.”
He quoted Pope Francis’s encyclical, calling people to “…new dialogue about how we are shaping the future of our planet. We need a conversation, which includes everyone, since the environmental challenge we are undergoing, and its human roots, concern and affect us all. We require a new and universal solidarity. All of us can cooperate as instruments of God for the care of creation, each according to his or her own culture, experience, involvements and talents.”
Ian Mitchell, the director of the Office of Social Concerns for the Archdiocese of Washington, praised the cardinal’s environmental leadership, saying, “Cardinal Gregory has pointed us toward understanding the connections between our faith, social justice, and a more integral ecology that is good for everyone in our communities and for the Earth, our common home.”
That point was echoed by Dan Misleh, the founder and executive director of the Catholic Climate Covenant, who said, “Cardinal Gregory came to Washington from Atlanta having already established himself as a leader on implementing the Holy Father’s encyclical, Laudato Si’. His first-in-the-nation plan from Atlanta has been copied in one form or another all over the country and inspired the Laudato Si’ action plan that he approved for Washington.”
The Archdiocese of Washington’s Care for Creation Committee – which includes parishioners from Washington, D.C., and the surrounding Maryland counties – helped provide research, resources and implementation ideas for the plan.
In a 2022 online presentation to the Jesuit-sponsored Seattle University, Cardinal Gregory emphasized how in Laudato Si’, Pope Francis linked care for creation with concern for the poor because “the poor disproportionately suffer from the neglect and abuse of our planet.”
The cardinal said caring for the poor must be part of any action to protect the environment because “poor families often have health-related conditions from this neglect and abuse such as higher asthma rates for those living in inner cities, tremendous financial loss of crops in rural areas, indigenous communities lose their land due to over-foresting, and we know the horror of child human trafficking.”
In that talk, Cardinal Gregory also emphasized how “Pope Francis makes us aware in Laudato Si’ that we are indeed interconnected – neighbors dependent on our planet and one another with closeness and assistance to respond and care for our sisters and brothers.”
In an April 2024 column in the Catholic Standard newspaper, Cardinal Gregory described a personal interest that he has in nature, noting, “I have been an enthusiastic “bird watcher” for more than 50 years. I love watching these amazing creatures go about their daily lives as up close as possible. I now have three bird feeders on the deck outside my residence, and I supply as much wild bird seed as possible to my feathered friends. In each place where I have lived, I have set up feeding stations for birds so that I can observe them up close.”
Environmental initiatives in the Archdiocese of Washington in recent years include:
• The archdiocese’s Care for Creation Committee devised a “Laudato Trees” project for parish and school communities to plant trees, partnering with Casey Trees, a Washington, D.C., nonprofit committed to restoring, enhancing and protecting the tree canopy of the nation’s capital. In October 2021, Casey Trees, joined by students at Annunciation Catholic School in Washington, planted 16 trees on Church property there. That same year, students from St. Thomas More Catholic Academy in Washington joined Casey Trees in planting more than 56 trees on their campus.
• In 2022, four Maryland parishes – St. Mark the Evangelist in Hyattsville, St. Camillus in Silver Spring, St. Michael the Archangel in Silver Spring and St. Rose of Lima in Gaithersburg – hosted native plant giveaways in conjunction with the National Wildlife Foundation’s Sacred Grounds program, which educates faith communities about the importance of native plants and encourages those plantings on Church properties and home gardens.
• In October 2021, about a dozen students from St. Thomas More Catholic Academy in Washington, joined by parents and other family members, teachers, school leaders and neighbors, planted about 100 grasses, flowers and other vegetation in a new rain garden in the back of their school. The bioretention garden which provides storm water management and a nature learning laboratory for students was done in partnership with the RiverSmart Schools program of the D.C. Department of Energy & Environment.
• In June 2024, The Catholic University of America powered on its new West Campus Solar Array, a field of 42 rows of solar panels that provide 10,000 megawatt hours of power to the university and the community. Catholic University said it is the region’s largest urban ground-mount solar array and demonstrates “the university’s dedication to pioneering sustainable energy solutions.”
Pope Francis on Jan. 6, 2025 announced that he had accepted the resignation of Cardinal Gregory as the archbishop of Washington, which by Church law he had been required to submit when he turned 75 on Dec. 7, 2022. Also on Jan. 6, Pope Francis named Cardinal Robert McElroy of San Diego as the new archbishop of Washington, and he will be installed in that role on March 11 at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.
After the announcement of Cardinal Gregory’s upcoming retirement, his leadership on environmental issues was praised in a statement by Bob Simon, a member of St. Camillus Parish in Silver Spring and the chair of the archdiocese’s Care for Creation Committee, who said, “Cardinal Gregory was a pioneer among American bishops in making a positive response to Pope Francis’s encyclical, Laudato Si’. In Atlanta, he worked closely with scientists and other concerned Catholics to develop the nation’s first Laudato Si’ action plan. In Washington, he issued a second action plan, with the stated ambition of making our archdiocese a national leader in implementing Laudato Si’. He sent a copy of that action plan to every priest and seminarian in the archdiocese. All this (was done) while confronting other important social issues of race and poverty, and dealing with the difficult management and morale issues that he found upon his arrival. Cardinal Gregory’s commitment to strengthening the archdiocese, to re-establishing the social justice teaching of the Church to a position of prominence in it, and to lifting up care for creation as a matter deserving the attention of the archdiocese at every level, lays a foundation that his successor, Cardinal McElroy, has already clearly indicated that he will build on.”
At the press conference on Jan. 6 at St. Matthew’s Cathedral introducing Cardinal McElroy as Washington’s new archbishop, his environmental protection efforts in the Catholic Diocese of San Diego were noted, and he was asked about his care for creation plans after he is installed in his new archdiocese. Cardinal McElroy said many of those efforts in San Diego were spurred by the Archdiocese of Washington’s Laudato Si’ action plan.
“It is a top issue in our world – how are we going to preserve the creation God has given us?” Cardinal McElroy said, adding, “one of the great challenges for the Church and the world at this moment is the care for our home here on the Earth,” and he said it is important to foster concern for the environment among young people because “they are the future who are going to help save our planet which is God’s creative work. It is a grace given to us by God.”
(Patricia Zapor and Richard Szczepanowski contributed to this article.)
