When Jorge Mario Bergolio was elected to lead the Catholic Church in 2013, Choose the papal name FrancisAfter the thirteenth century character, St. Francis of Assay, known as the saint of environmental scholars and the hero of the poor.
It was a suitable option. Pope Francis was the most miserable climate and environment in the history of the church.
The Pope often talked about the importance of overseeing the environment in some way, none of its predecessors, and linked climate change to social inequality, further. blame Industry, world leaders and “irresponsible” western lifestyles of a deterioration crisis.
In his 2015 teacher, Pope Francis was able to solve some long -term tensions between the Catholic Church and Environmental Sciences, “Caring for our joint home”. Eliminating space for climate denying in the church And brought the Vatican to the world of international climate work.
In the facility, a type of letters dealing with more than a billion Catholics in the world, the ink argued that the Catholic values were aligned with the work of climate change. He directed points of the Bible, including the first Genesis Book, which shows the creation of the Earth and how humans are assigned to preserve it safe and clean.
He said that God gave humans to the earth to cultivate and protect, not to overcome and destroy it, which confirms how the planet suffered from human activities since it began to burn fossil fuels quickly to manufacture. “We did not harm us and abuse our joint house as we did in the past 200 years,” he wrote.
The Pope touched on a series of problems that cause chaos on this planet: polluted air, water poverty, toxic waste, industrial pollution, sea level rise and severe weather.
The nun of Pope Francis is read “a new encyclopedia entitled” Laudato Si “in the Vatican on June 18, 2015 – Max Rossi/Reuters
“The Earth, our house, began to look more and more huge pile of filth,” wrote, using an explicit language. “In many parts of the planet, the lament of the elderly who was once beautiful landscapes is now covered with garbage.”
The timing was crucial and deliberate. Pope Francis pushed the Vatican to publish the publications early, playing at the United Nations Climate Climate COP21 in Paris later that year. The Pope was considered very influential in the historical agreement that was eventually reached.
Although the popes in the past dealt with issues such as environmental destruction, Alberto Balkeshi, the head of faith and sustainability at the unburious global resources Institute, CNNN In the attention of Pope Francis with any leader of Iman.
“He constantly put his moral power at stake, pushing governments, private sector, and mobilizing the movement based on the global environment,” Pallecchi said in an interview before the death of Francis.
“The climate change firmly on the agenda of the Catholic Church.”
In 2022, the Vatican city, which is also a state, became a party within the framework of the United Nations international climate, which heads the annual climate summits. In the period before the COP28 climate talks in Dubai in 2023, the Pope was published The ApostleCall to a binding work on the climate.
The 12 -page document was the most powerful statement of the Pope after the encyclopedia. In this, he criticized the wealthy greed and selfishness who consumed more, while emphasizing that the poor were the first victim of the climate crisis.
“The truth is that the low and wealthy percentage of the planet is polluting more than 50 % of the total population of the world, and that the individual emissions of the most rich countries are much greater than the poorest of the poor,” he wrote.
Other initiatives followed by the Pope included publishing the first pledge of the Vatican to cut carbon emissions, and a plan for the Vegetables of the Vatican Fleet.
Many observers say that the Pope’s ability to link poverty and the climatic crisis throughout his wickedness reflect the time when he spent in the poor neighborhoods in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he was surrounded by difficulties.
In 2018, the Pope made his first visit to the Amazon in Peru, where he called the industry to end its destruction for the vast day, saying that the indigenous population “was not threatened with their lands.”
He said: “We have to lose the historical model that looks at the Amazon as an inexhaustible source of supplies for other countries without concern about its residents.”
Pope Francis delivers a speech during a meeting with representatives of the original societies in the Amazon Basin from Peru, Brazil and Bolivia, in Puerto Maldonado, Peru, on January 19, 2018 – Venkeenzo Pinto/Avenue Emp
Despite the Pope climate credentials, there are limits for what he was able to achieve. His advice was taken to Catholic institutions all over the world to get rid of fossil fuels by some, but many of them resisted.
For example, Pallecchi said, more about the green and financial assets that contribute to the climate of warming, including places of worship, schools, pension boxes and pension boxes.
He also said that the Catholic Church can strongly affect “extractive projects that violate the rights of local communities and destroy ecosystems.”
However, observers say that the Pope’s passion and its impact on climate work will live.
“Part of his heritage is that he ignited the movement of people all over the world, who are now embracing the creation as part of their faith,” Kristina Laudato Si told CNN.
“So even if he goes, we know that this will continue to live – that he created this space and the new language for us as Christians to continue what is beyond his physical existence.”
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