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Pope Francis demanded swift action on Thursday to save the planet from
environmental ruin, urging world leaders to hear "the cry of the earth and
the cry of the poor", plunging the Catholic Church into political
controversy over climate change.
In the first papal document dedicated to the environment, he calls for
"decisive action, here and now," to stop environmental degradation
and global warming, squarely backing scientists who say it is mostly man-made.
In the encyclical "Laudato Si (Praise Be), On the Care of Our
Common Home", Francis calls for a change of lifestyle in rich countries
steeped in a "throwaway" consumer culture and an end to an
"obstructionist attitudes" that sometimes put profit before the
common good.
The most controversial papal pronouncement in half a century has
already won him the wrath of conservatives, including several U.S. Republican
presidential candidates who have scolded Francis for delving into science and
politics.
But Latin America's first pope, who took his name from St. Francis of
Assisi, the patron of ecology, says protecting the planet is a moral and
ethical "imperative" for believers and non-believers alike that
should supersede political and economic interests.
The clarion call to his flock of 1.2 billion members, the most
controversial papal document since Pope Paul VI's 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae
upholding the Church's ban on contraception, could spur the world's Catholics
to lobby policymakers on ecology issues and climate change.
POLITICAL MYOPIA
The Argentine-born pontiff, 78, decries a "myopia of power
politics" he said has delayed far-sighted environmental action and says
"many of those who possess more resources and economic or political power
seem mostly to be concerned with masking the problems or concealing their
symptoms".
Because he has said he wants to influence this year's key U.N. climate
summit in Paris, the encyclical further consolidates his role as a global diplomatic
player following his mediation bringing Cuba and the United States to the
negotiating table last year.
Source: Reuters
