Pope Francis endorses Catholic Climate Petition

The Global Catholic Climate Movement ^ | 3-15-2015

[Citizen Zed]

Pope Francis endorsed the Catholic Climate Petition after meeting with a group of representatives of our Global Catholic Climate Movement (GCCM) in the Vatican.

Through the petition we are collecting signatures from Catholics all over the world to raise a strong voice demanding bold climate action. The petition signatures will be presented to world leaders in December 2015, when they will meet in the United Nations climate summit at Paris with the goal of signing a treaty to tackle climate change.

“Pope Francis was very supportive of the work we are doing to engage Catholics around the world in a coordinated response to climate change,” said Tomás Insua, a co-founder of the GCCM from Argentina. “Francis even joked that we were competing against his encyclical. His endorsement of our work is very important to raise awareness within Catholic circles globally, and to collect more signatures.”

Pope Francis asked the Pontifical Ceremonieri, Monsignor Guillermo Karcher, to sign the petition on his behalf as a way to show his endorsement (given that popes don’t sign petitions because of protocol).

The Pope also gave the GCCM the book “The Sun’s Energy in the Vatican” as a gift, to emphasize the Holy See’s commitment to renewable energy as a means to address the climate change crisis. All the pictures about the meeting are available here.

“The support of Pope Francis to the petition is very important as climate change is a great and urgent moral issue,” said Allen Ottaro, director of CYNESA based in Kenya and co-founder of GCCM. “Climate change hits the poorest first and hardest, and will leave an unnecessarily dire legacy for future generations. We Catholics need to step up against climate change and raise a strong voice asking political leaders to take action urgently.”

This endorsement from Pope Francis is extremely valuable as we start to actively promote the petition ahead of the United Nations climate change summit in Paris, responding to Pope Francis’ call last December: “On climate change there is a clear, definitive and ineluctable ethical imperative to act.”

Pope Francis is ready for climate action. What about you? Sign the petition:

To world leaders:

Climate change affects everyone, but especially the poor and most vulnerable people. Impelled by our Catholic faith, we call on you to drastically cut carbon emissions to keep the global temperature rise below the dangerous threshold of 1.5°C, and to aid the world’s poorest in coping with climate change impacts.

[tumblindice]

[Colehill1999]

Outrageous and disturbing. This is surely a sign of the end times. Nostradaumus was right after all!

[Amendment10]

I wish that the Pope would concentrate on fulfilling the Great Commission (Matthew 24:14) instead of concerning the Church with PC global warming.

After all, Genesis 8:22 shows that God promised that cold and heat, summer and winter will never cease for as long as the earth endures.

[The Great RJ]

I suppose the Pope will institute a Climate Change Inquisition to root out deniers (heretics) of the global warming dogma.