Free Republic
Browse · Search
Religion
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Vatican to turn off lights for ‘earth hour’ raising awareness of climate change
LifeSite News ^ | March 21, 2025 | Michael Haynes

Posted on 03/21/2025 2:02:00 PM PDT by ebb tide

Vatican to turn off lights for ‘earth hour’ raising awareness of climate change

The Vatican has a history of promoting ecological issues under Pope Francis, who has made it a key point of his pontificate.

The Vatican is once again turning off its lights to participate in the World Wildlife Fund’s Earth Hour on Saturday, citing ecological concerns.

In a brief press note issued Friday night, the office of St. Peter’s Basilica noted its participation in the annual event. As such, the light on the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica will be switched off for an hour at 8:30 pm Saturday, to join in the worldwide initiative.

The note added:

In his encyclical Laudato si’, Pope Francis reminds us that the ecological issue must be centered on ethics and social justice, and that what is happening to the earth, “our common home, is an unprecedented challenge that affects our responsibility to others and to future generations.”

The Vatican has taken part in the annual ecological virtue signaling event since at least 2009. “Earth Hour” is organized by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and began in 2007 in Australia when more than 2.2 million people turned off their lights to express their shared concern for “climate change.” 

Announcing the 2025 event, the WWF stated it is a time when “millions of people around the world come together for one hour to show they care about the future of our planet. From iconic landmarks like Big Ben and the Sydney Opera House to cities across the globe, the lights go out in a stunning display of solidarity for our natural world.”

“Our world needs our help,” wrote the WWF. “Nature gives us so much, from the food we eat to the air we breathe; it keeps us healthy and thriving. WWF’s Earth Hour is the perfect moment to switch off and give back to the planet. Because when we restore nature, it restores us.”

The Earth Hour organization added that their event is intended to raise awareness of the climate goals set in the Paris Climate Agreement of 2015:

“we are now at a tipping point with our climate and nature crises, putting at risk the fate of our one home and all our futures. We are on course to breach by 2030 the 1.5°C global temperature increase limit set by the Paris Climate Agreement, and nature – the source of our very livelihoods and one of our biggest allies against the climate crisis – is also under severe threat,  facing alarming and unprecedented rates of loss globally.”

Their endeavor, the group writes, is to further this ecological aim:

So, how can you contribute? Earth Hour is calling on individuals, communities, and businesses across the world to switch off their lights and Give an hour for Earth, spending 60 minutes doing something – anything – positive for our planet.

Pope Francis has made “climate change” a key aspect of his 11-year pontificate, in his official writings, speeches, and interventions. In what was set to be the culmination of all of his “climate change” activism, Francis was due to attend the COP28 climate conference in Dubai in late 2023. However, due to ill health, he had to cancel the trip less than two days before he was intended to leave.

Shortly before that cancelled trip, Francis released a follow up to Laudato Si’ – the apostolic exhoration Laudate Deum – in which he issued stark calls for “obligatory” measures across the globe to address the issue of “climate change.”

“It is no longer possible to doubt the human – ‘anthropic’ – origin of climate change,” wrote the pontiff, before later calling for mandatory alignment with green policies:

If there is sincere interest in making COP28 a historic event that honors and ennobles us as human beings, then one can only hope for binding forms of energy transition that meet three conditions: that they be efficient, obligatory and readily monitored.

READ: Pope Francis calls for obligatory global ‘climate change’ policies in new document ‘Laudate Deum’

The pope’s personal commitment to the “climate change” agenda is well documented, and has emerged as one of the central themes of his ten-year reign. His continued promotion of the pro-abortion Paris Agreement, which underpins the majority of the current “climate change” agenda, comes despite the agreement’s fundamentally pro-abortion principles which connect to the stated U.N. goal of creating a universal “right” to abortion in line with Goal No. 5.6 of the organization’s Sustainable Development Goals.

READ: Pope Francis calls for an ‘end’ to ‘the era of fossil fuel’ in Prayer for Creation message

Francis has also gone as far as to sign the Vatican up to the principles of the agreement in 2022. Laudato Si’ led to the birth of a global movement that links “climate change” activism to the pope’s words. The Laudato Si’ Movement issues calls to divest from fossil fuels, and aims to “turn Pope Francis’ encyclical letter Laudato Si’ into action for climate and ecological justice.”

This story is developing…



TOPICS: Catholic; Current Events; Religion & Culture
KEYWORDS: gaiaworsipper; greenpope; morepopenews; pachamamapope; popefrank
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-40 next last

Pachamama Pope Barf Alert


1 posted on 03/21/2025 2:02:00 PM PDT by ebb tide
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Al Hitan; Fedora; irishjuggler; Jaded; kalee; markomalley; miele man; Mrs. Don-o; ...

Ping


2 posted on 03/21/2025 2:02:41 PM PDT by ebb tide (The Synodal "church" is not the Catholic Church. )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ebb tide

Why do I feel the urge to turn on all the lights I have during that hour?


3 posted on 03/21/2025 2:03:23 PM PDT by 9YearLurker
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ebb tide

How about making a statement not to bomb Tesla’s for the sake of climate change?


4 posted on 03/21/2025 2:03:30 PM PDT by Beowulf9 ( )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ebb tide

Leave them off!


5 posted on 03/21/2025 2:04:22 PM PDT by rktman (Destroy America from within ? Check! WTH? Enlisted USN 1967 to end up with this💩? 🚫💉! 🇮🇱👍!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ebb tide

Raising awareness that they’re a bunch of dim bulbs.


6 posted on 03/21/2025 2:07:10 PM PDT by rfp1234 (E Porcibus Unum)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: rktman

They are possessed by the lord of darkness, so it’s appropriate.


7 posted on 03/21/2025 2:08:22 PM PDT by rfp1234 (E Porcibus Unum)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: 9YearLurker

“”Why do I feel the urge to turn on all the lights I have during that hour?”””

Here in Occupied Territory of Minneapolistan I have a very liberal neighbor. she has all the standard liberal signs in her yard. BLM, Everyone is welcome. No humans are illegal etc. On earth day I turn on every light. Have a campfire, leave the vehicle running in the driveway etc.


8 posted on 03/21/2025 2:08:44 PM PDT by shelterguy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: ebb tide

Their lights have already been off for some time now


9 posted on 03/21/2025 2:11:20 PM PDT by Recompennation
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: shelterguy

Ha!


10 posted on 03/21/2025 2:13:33 PM PDT by 9YearLurker
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: ebb tide

All my lights and all three air conditioners will be on!


11 posted on 03/21/2025 2:13:59 PM PDT by Ge0ffrey
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ebb tide

Alt headline: Catholic Church replaces Jesus with gaia.


12 posted on 03/21/2025 2:14:11 PM PDT by Skwor
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ebb tide

Does Vatican City have its own power plant?


13 posted on 03/21/2025 2:14:16 PM PDT by fwdude (Why is there a "far/radical right," but damned if they'll admit that there is a far/radical left?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ebb tide

Mister Vatican

Tear down those walls


14 posted on 03/21/2025 2:19:48 PM PDT by A_Former_Democrat (What does the Deep State have on Dims and RINOs? Demand release of all tax returns)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ebb tide

...or to celebrate the Prince of Darkness


15 posted on 03/21/2025 2:21:27 PM PDT by RckyRaCoCo (Time to throw them out of the Temple...again)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Recompennation

For far too long.


16 posted on 03/21/2025 2:28:52 PM PDT by No name given ( Anonymous is who you’ll know me as)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: ebb tide

They’ll just burn more candles because burning wax doesn’t contribute to their climate scam, nosiree.


17 posted on 03/21/2025 2:28:58 PM PDT by mikey_hates_everything
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ebb tide

This would be a good time to set a pile of tires on fire and maybe burn some old used motor oil.


18 posted on 03/21/2025 2:35:00 PM PDT by redfreedom (Happiness is shopping at Walmart and not hearing Spanish once!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ebb tide

He’s using the Left’s terminology.

Raising Awareness means...

Lowering Resistance.


19 posted on 03/21/2025 2:37:00 PM PDT by SaxxonWoods (The road is a dangerous place man, you can die out here...or worse. -Johnny Paycheck, 1980, Reno, NV)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ebb tide

I hope they don’t burn candles - that emits co2 as well.


20 posted on 03/21/2025 2:39:59 PM PDT by enumerated (81 million votes my ass)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-40 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
Religion
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson