A coalition of 40 Catholic institutions around the world, including banks and microfinance institutions, has decided to disinvest coal, gas and oil. It is the biggest divestment ever made by religious institutions. They are particularly active in this movement and represent, on their own, a quarter of the organizations that have decided to disinvest fossil fuels. Forty new Catholic institutions, mainly from Italy and Belgium, announced on Tuesday, October 3, to withdraw from fossil energies. This is the biggest divestment ever made by religious institutions. This testifies to the extent of this movement within the Catholic community since the publication of the papal encyclical “Laudato Si”. Particularly symbolic announcements include the presence of one of the first Catholic banks, the German Bank for the Church and Caritas, and Oikocredit, one of the largest microcredit operators in the world, markets for solidarity-based savings and micro-credit.
