For the first time in living memory, the Catholic Church made a global appeal to world leaders to come to an agreement on climate change, in yet another bid to insert herself into global politics. Roman Catholic leaders including cardinals, patriarchs and bishops from around the world, made an unprecedented joint appeal to the upcoming conference on climate change in Paris, urging them to produce “a truly transformational” agreement to stem global warming.
The 10-point appeal, which echoes the papal encyclical “Laudato Si,” released last June, demanded urgent action to save the planet. The appeal was signed at the Vatican by bishops from five continents, including India, Europe, Colombia, Lebanon, Angola, the United States, Canada and Papua New Guinea. The signatories on the totally global appeal represented every national and regional and bishops conference. It urges that any climate action has to address social justice and must be fair and ensure that “the poor and most vulnerable were not sold short.”
Calling for moral and ethical mindfulness, the document was designed to “put the 1.2 billion-member Catholic Church in the front line of the debate over the causes of climate change.” “The pope and Catholic Bishops from five continents, sensitive to the damage caused, appeal for a drastic reduction in the emission of carbon dioxide and other toxic gases,” the document said. The appeal demands big changes to protect the climate, calling for complete decarbonization by mid-century.
Pope Francis addressed his encyclical to “every person living on the planet.” The bishops appeal said, “Whether believers or not, we are agreed today that the earth is essentially a shared inheritance, whose fruits are meant to benefit everyone.”
“It is important that there be a variety of non-state activists in (the climate talks) and the Church can be a very important player,” said Professor Jean-Pascal van Ypersele, a former vice-chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Rome tries to make herself the queen of the earth (see Revelation 18:7), and the people of the earth drink her “wine.”
“With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.” Revelation 17:2
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