By Catholic News Agency - Catholic News Agency
Photographer: COURTESY PHOTO
Archbishop Thomas Wenski was one of the representatives "from the Church in each continent" who traveled to Rome at the end of October to take part in a Vatican meeting on climate change. The Church representatives signed an appeal urging delegates to the Nov. 30-Dec. 11 Paris Climate Change Conference to secure an agreement that is “fair, legally binding and truly transformational.”
VATICAN CITY | A month before world leaders and their delegates gathered in Paris to hash out agreements to slow or reverse global warming, leading bishops from around the world — including Archbishop Thomas Wenski — urged them to take effective action to protect creation.
“This agreement must put the common good ahead of national interests. It is essential too that the negotiations result in an enforceable agreement that protects our common home and all its inhabitants,” said the world’s bishops in their Oct. 26 appeal.
Taking their cue from the papal encyclical, Laudato Si’, the bishops addressed negotiators at the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, taking place in Paris Nov. 30 – Dec. 11.
The bishops said negotiators must secure an agreement that is “fair, legally binding and truly transformational.”
“The building and maintenance of a sustainable common home requires courageous and imaginative political leadership,” the bishops said, calling for legal frameworks which “clearly establish boundaries” and ensure protection for the ecosystem.
Photographer: COURTESY PHOTO
Archbishop Thomas Wenski speaks with journalists after the press conference on climate change at the Holy See.
Signers of the declaration include Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of Louisville, president of the United States bishops' conference, and Bishop David Crosby of Hamilton, president of the Canadian bishops' conference.
Other signers were the heads of the regional bishops’ conferences of Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and Oceania: Cardinal Gracias of Bombay; Archbishop Mbilingi of Lubango; Cardinal Erdo of Esztergom-Budapest; Cardinal Marx of Munich and Freising; Archbishop Ribat of Port Moresby; Cardinal Salazar Gómez of Bogota; and Cardinal Rai, the Maronite Patriarch of Antioch.
The bishops said scientific evidence indicates that accelerated climate change is due to “unrestrained human activity” and “excessive reliance on fossil fuels.”
“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 bishops said.
They called on the climate change conference to forge an international agreement to limit global temperature increases as suggested by the scientific community in order “to avoid catastrophic climatic impacts, especially on the poorest and most vulnerable communities.”
The bishops advised that the global climate change agreement recognize “the need to live in harmony with nature” and the need to guarantee human rights for everyone, including indigenous peoples, women, youth and workers.
The bishops asked the conference to “set a goal for complete de-carbonization by mid-century” to protect communities most threatened by climate change, such as Pacific islanders and coastal communities.
The agreement should also ensure access to water and land, while enabling the participation of the poorest and most vulnerable in the discussions.
The bishops said their policy proposals draw on “the concrete experiences of people across the continents.” The bishops linked climate change to “social injustice and the social exclusion of the poorest.”
The bishops’ appeal to the climate change conference echoed the concerns expressed by Pope Francis in Laudato Si’.
“We call for an integral ecological approach, we call for social justice to be placed center stage ‘so as to hear both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor’,” the bishops said.
The bishops’ statement included a prayer that God will “teach us to care for this world our common home.” They asked that God would inspire government leaders gathered in Paris “to listen to and heed the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor” and to “protect the beautiful earthly garden you have created for us.”
The bishops wrote their appeal in collaboration with Caritas Internationalis and the network of Catholic development agencies, CIDSE. The Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace sponsored the effort.
