Front-row Vatican coverage:
headshot of Christiana Zenner

Christiana Zenner

Christiana Zenner is associate professor of theology, science and ethics at Fordham University in New York City. An anti-colonial feminist working at the intersections of theology, religious studies and environmental sciences, Zenner is the author of Just Water: Theology, Ethics, and Fresh Water Crises (rev. ed. 2018) and co-editor of two volumes on bioethics and sustainability. Her next book, Beyond Laudato Si’, is forthcoming with Fordham University Press in 2026.

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Copies of Pope Francis' encyclical on the environment, "Laudato Si', on Care for Our Common Home," are stacked on a table prior to a presentation on the encyclical June 30, 2015, at U.N. headquarters in New York City. (CNS/Gregory A. Shemitz)

Laudato Si' called all to climate action, but omitted women from the conversation

"The women problem" in Laudato Si' is nothing new. The failure to centralize, regard and learn from women and their experiences abounds in Catholic theology and ecclesial realities. In the next decade, the church must fill this gap.

Access to clean water is a life issue that the church must defend

Commentary: Is it possible that, given the intrinsic theological goodness of creation, as well as water's centrality to human flourishing, that waters could have rights in themselves, worthy of protection not only for human beings, but also for the life-giving qualities they embody?

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