A group of nuns said a prayer Sunday morning in Quebec urging federal leaders to tackle climate change in the upcoming federal elections.
Morning masses across the country included a prayer for the planet's salvation, as part of a campaign to urge leaders to get serious about fighting for the environment.
Sister Aurore Larken of the Sanctuaire Marie-Reine-des-Coeurs is one of those Canadian nuns shining a light on climate change for the highest leaders in the country.
"We need to really bring it forward and to invite our politicians and our governments to do something worthwhile about it," said the member of the Grey Nuns of Montreal.
All 65 convents associated with the Sisters of St-Joseph want federal leaders to make the environment a major election issue in their upcoming campaigns.
Aurore said she is following in the footsteps of her past sisters who urged governments to change policies to help people.
"When we think of education, when we think of health, when we think of social services, if it would not have been for the congregation some 300 years, nothing much would have moved," said Aurore. "We look at it (planet protection) as an unmet need today, so we're going at it the way our foremothers or our founders went at it in their day and age."
Pope Francis also urged world leaders to take drastic measures to combat global warming at an upcoming United Nations summit.
"My hope is this initiative moves forward favouring a clear conscience on the need to adopt really effective measures," the Pope said.
Currently, there are over 12 million Canadians who were baptized as Catholics, and the nuns are urging their congregants to reduce their use of fossil fuels, plant trees, and avoid single-use plastic.
"Some convents, they refused to let plastic bottles in their houses," said Aurore. "Way ahead of companies."
The nuns are not alone.
The St-Jean-de-Matha monastery uses geothermal technology to heat and cool the facility showing the push for progress within certain traditions in the church.
"Women's religious congregations have evolved with the times in terms of all those issues," said Aurore. "We're just meeting an unmet need today that we need to really bring it forward and invite our government and our leaders to do something worthwhile about it."
