Oct 26, 2018
by Junno Arocho Esteves, Catholic News Service Environment World
Cardinal Oswald Gracias of Mumbai, India, president of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences, signs a joint statement Oct. 26 at the Vatican’s Sala Marconi calling on the international community to take immediate action against climate change. Also pictured in the signing are Archbishop Gabriel Mbilingi of Lubango, president of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar, left, Cardinal Jose Luis Lacunza Maestrojuan of David, Panama, president of Latin American bishops’ council’s economic committee, Archbishop Jean-Claude Hollerich, president of the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Union, right.
(CNS/Junno Arocho Esteves)
VATICAN CITY — Six bishops representing episcopal conferences on five continents issued a joint statement calling on the international community to take immediate action against climate change.
Addressing world leaders who will be attending the COP24 Summit in Katowice, Poland, in December, the bishops urged them to take concrete steps “in order to tackle and overcome the devastating effects of the climate crisis.”
“We must be prepared to make rapid and radical changes and resist the temptation to look for solutions to our current situation in short-term technological fixes without addressing the root causes and the long-term consequences,” the bishops said in the statement.
The statement was signed at the Vatican Oct. 26 by: Cardinal Oswald Gracias of Mumbai, India, president of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences; Archbishop Jean-Claude Hollerich of Luxembourg, president of the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Union; Archbishop Gabriel Mbilingi of Lubango, Angola, president of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar; and Cardinal José Luis Lacunza Maestrojuan of David, Panama, president of the Latin American bishops’ council’s economic committee.
The document was also signed by Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco of Genova, Italy, president of the Council of Bishops’ Conferences of Europe; and Colombian Cardinal Rubén Salazar Gómez of Bogota, president of the Latin American bishops’ council, also known as CELAM.
Gracias told journalists that on the issue of climate change, the church cannot rest until “the Paris agreement is fulfilled, adhered to and followed up.”
“People who are affected most are the weakest,” he said. “There is no doubt that this is something that is urgent, important, and it is our responsibility to throw our full weight on it.”
Hollerich said that a contributing factor to the crisis was the flow of money into industries that contribute to climate change, especially fossil fuels.
“If you do not look to the sources of money and where the money flows we have a very nice way of speaking, but things will not really happen,” the archbishop said. “And things have to happen because everything is interconnected as Pope Francis says in Laudato Si’ and we are responsible for the people in Europe but also the people of other continents.”
