by Guadalupe García Corigliano | Mar 12, 2022 | Blog, News and Updates, Pope Francis | 1 comment
Pope Francis has shown us throughout his pontificate that he cares about climate and ecological justice and that he is concerned about the future of our common home.
Not only in his encyclical Laudato Si’, but also repeatedly he has invited Catholics and people of good will to look at their lives and change the way they act, in favor of the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor.
On the occasion of his 9th anniversary as pontificate, we invite you to recall these 10 important moments in which the Holy Father has called us to take urgent action for the climate crisis:
On his visit to Kenya, the Pope gave a speech at the United Nations headquarters in Nairobi (UNON) after planting a tree in the city’s downtown park. This trip occurred months after the publication of Laudato Si’, so Francis took the opportunity to disseminate it in that country and throughout the African continent.
There, the Pontiff appealed to “protect and responsibly administer those lungs of the planet full of biodiversity [as we can see in this continent with] the Congo river basin, an essential place for the entire planet and for the future of humanity”.
Help protect biodiversity: Sign the petition “Healthy Planet, Healthy People”.
In 2018 Francis met in an audience with the participants of the Meeting of Leaders of Major Oil and Natural Gas Companies and other Energy-Related Activities.
In his message, the Pope was emphatic: “Civilization requires energy, but energy use must not destroy civilization!”
He continued: “I invite you to be the core of a group of leaders who envision the global energy transition in a way that takes into account all the peoples of the earth, as well as future generations; all species and ecosystems.”
In 2019, the meeting was repeated and Francis said: “Faced with a climate emergency, we must take action accordingly, in order to avoid perpetrating a brutal act of injustice towards the poor and future generations.”
On the 2019 World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, the Pope gave for the first time a pontifical message referring to the Season of Creation: “We are beloved creatures of God, who in his goodness calls us to love life and live it in communion with the rest of creation.”
The Holy Father spoke of a ” season for letting our prayer be inspired anew by closeness to nature, which spontaneously leads us to give thanks to God the Creator”; a time ” to reflect on our lifestyles, and how our daily decisions about food, consumption”; “a season for undertaking prophetic actions”
WATCH: ” Hearing the voice of creation “, the theme of Season of Creation 2022
After the synod held in 2019, the apostolic exhortation “Dear Amazonia”, a proposal towards new paths of evangelization and care for the environment and the poor, was published.
In it, Pope Francis shares his “Dreams for the Amazon”, whose destiny should concern everyone, because this land is also “ours”. He formulates “four great dreams”: that the Amazon “fight for the rights of the poorest”, “preserve the cultural richness”, “jealously guard it’s overwhelming natural beauty” and, finally, that the Christian communities be “capable of giving themselves to and incarnating themselves in the Amazon”.
With the 2020 pandemic, TED Countdown, a global virtual initiative to advocate and accelerate solutions to the climate crisis, was launched.
There, Pope Francis participated, urging individuals and organizations to forge a more life-giving future through “concrete and urgent actions” and to divest from fossil fuels.
“Creation desperately needs our love,” he announced, adding later that “our conscience tells us that we cannot remain indifferent to the suffering of those in need, to the growing economic inequalities and social injustices.”
WATCH: The Pope’s participation in TED
On Earth Day, April 22, 2021, the Pope delivered a strong message to all people of good will: “The COVID crisis and the climate crisis show that we have no more time to wait. That time is pressing and that, as Covid-19 taught us, we do have the means to meet the challenge. We have the means. Now is the time to act, we are at the limit”.
But he was harsher, affirming that “God always forgives, human beings forgive from time to time, nature never”.
During Laudato Si’ Week 2021, Pope Francis launched the Laudato Si’ Action Platform, a transformational tool for the global Catholic family to achieve total sustainability in the decade 20-30.
“Let us cultivate respect for the gifts of the Earth and creation, let us inaugurate an ultimately eco-sustainable lifestyle and society. We have the opportunity to prepare a better tomorrow for all. We have received a garden from the hands of God, we cannot leave a desert to our children,” said Pope Francis.
Together with the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Promotion of Integral Human Development, the project seeks to train Catholic institutions, communities and families to implement Laudato Si’ in their lives.
Learn more about Laudato Si’ Action Platform
On Food Day 2021, October 16, the Pope gave a message to Popular Movements in which he asked them to “place the economy at the service of the people in order to build a lasting peace based on social justice and on care for our Common Home.”
He also addressed the large extractive corporations – mining, oil, forestry, real estate, agribusiness, and “in the name of God” asked them “to stop destroying forests, wetlands and mountains, to stop polluting rivers and seas, to stop poisoning food and people.”
Ahead of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow in 2021, Francis organized the “Faith and Science: Towards COP26” meeting, in which scientists and religious leaders participated. There he called for achieving net carbon emissions as soon as possible and helping poor countries to achieve this.
“We have inherited a garden: we must not leave a desert to our children,” because they “will never forgive us,” the Holy Father said and called for taking “speedy, responsible and shared action to safeguard, restore and heal our wounded humanity and the home entrusted to our stewardship.”
“It is a moral obligation to cooperate in the healing of the planet” and to be “caretakers of the natural environment with the vocation to care for it.”
For the first time live on Italian television, Pope Francis participated in the program Che Tempo Fa on the Rai 3 channel, and spoke, among other things, about the sin of throwing plastic into the ocean.
“Throwing away plastic in the sea is criminal. This kills biodiversity, the Earth, everything,” Pope Francis said. “If things don’t change, our grandchildren will have to live in an uninhabitable world within 30 years.”
Do like Pope Francis: act for creation now. Sign the “Healthy Planet, Healthy People” petition.
WATCH: Our video to the Pope on his nine years of Pontificate
Buenos Aires, Argentina. B.A. in Journalism from Universidad del Salvador (Argentina). Postgraduate Diploma in Digital Journalism from Pompeu Fabra University (Spain). Currently she is Copywriter for LSM; Press Manager at Meraki; Founder and Director of the Digital Magazine Iglesia Millennial. More than 5 years of experience in communication and press for different Catholic organizations and projects.
How blessed are we, not just us Catholics, but the world at large, that Francesco is our Pope!
