WASHINGTON – With a global agreement that addresses climate change now ready to go into effect, advocates took a moment to celebrate the milestone, but called for further actions to reduce carbon pollution.

Maybe Pope Francis got his wish.

On Earth Day, April 22, 175 world leaders signed the Paris Accord on climate change — a new one-day record for any international agreement. Fifteen countries immediately ratified it, making it law in those countries.

Once again Africa is reeling from a hunger crisis and appealing for humanitarian aid. And once again the world’s sated nations have a moral duty to generously respond.

VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis' call to action on climate change does not want to ruin any business, provoking job losses, but seeks to point humanity in the right direction in protecting the environment for future generations, a Vatican official said.

OTTAWA - Faith communities must stay hopeful and engaged to ensure governments live up to climate change commitments, says the leader of the United Church of Canada’s delegation to COP21.

PARIS - German Msgr. Josef Sayer prayed over a crowd of environmental activists at Saint-Merry Catholic Church, where they had joined for Mass after two weeks of intense lobbying in and around the U.N. climate change conference.

PARIS - Faith-based groups presented French President Francois Hollande with 1.8 million signatures of people seeking a fair climate change agreement that would stop global warming and protect the poor, reported religious groups in Paris for the U.N. climate change conference.

PARIS - Thandiwe Chidararume, who farms sweet potato, nuts and corn in Zimbabwe, traveled nearly 5,000 miles to be in Paris for the U.N. climate change conference. She wanted to tell negotiators there of the problems she and thousands of other Zimbabwean farmers face due to adverse weather conditions.

PARIS - A senior Vatican official urged a roomful of world leaders "to take action" and work in a spirit of solidarity to come up with an accord to combat global warming before it is too late.

PARIS - Major hurdles stand in the way of a global accord on climate change, including over the questions of human rights and who pays the costs for poor countries to transition into using greener energy, said Catholic and other Church activists on the sidelines of the UN climate conference.

VATICAN CITY - Heads of states at the U.N. climate change conference in Paris must do everything possible to mitigate the effects of both climate change and poverty "for the good of our common home," Pope Francis said.

CAIRO - Africa is among the world's regions most in need of a "just and clear" global accord to combat climate change, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi told the UN climate conference in Paris.

WASHINGTON - Catholic organizations advocating to protect the world and its people from the impact of climate change said the terror attacks in Paris will not dissuade them from attending the UN summit on climate change to be held there Nov. 30-Dec. 11.

Pope Francis has been getting ready for Paris for more than a year. In May of 2014 the Patriarch of Rome sat down in Jerusalem with Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople and issued a joint declaration as a challenge to the world’s Christians.

Ottawa - As the new Liberal government pushes ahead with an ambitious plan to resettle 25,000 Syrian refugees by Christmas, it is also faces urgent challenges on three other issues important to the Church: climate change, indigenous rights and assisted suicide.