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| Environmental Sinners Will Answer to God! |
VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis on Tuesday warned "the
powerful of the earth" they will answer to God if they fail to protect the
environment to ensure the world can feed its population.
"The planet has enough
food for all, but it seems that there is a lack of willingness to share it with
everyone," Francis said at a mass to mark the opening of the general
assembly of the Catholic charitable organization Caritas.
"We must do what we can so
that everyone has something to eat, but we must also remind the powerful of the
earth that God will call them to judgment one day and there it will be
revealed if they really tried to provide food for Him in every person and if
they did what they could to preserve the environment so that it could produce
this food."
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The striking comments from the
Argentinian pontiff came ahead of the upcoming publication of a papal
encyclical on the ethical aspects of environmental issues that is eagerly
awaited by campaigners for action to address global warming.
An encyclical is a statement of
fundamental principles designed to guide Catholic teaching on a subject. It is
issued in the form of a letter from the pope to bishops around the world.
Campaigners on climate change
believe that a signal from Francis that the Church considers global warming a
grave danger could influence the global discussion on the severity of the
problem, what has caused it and what can be done.
The pope is due to address the
UN Special Summit on Sustainable Development in September and the international
community will seek to agree a universal agreement on climate change at a
summit in Paris in December.
Climate change skeptics have
warned Francis not to take sides in the debate but all the signs so far are
that he sees the problem as man-made and as one which can be alleviated by
political action.
Caritas is a confederation of
165 Catholic charity and aid groups operating in 200 countries worldwide.
It holds a general assembly
once every four years. This year's meeting, the first under Francis's papacy,
runs to Saturday.
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| Tagle and Bergoglio give the horns. |
Manila archbishop Luis Antonio
Tagle is tipped to take over from Hondurian cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga
as the organization's president, the latter cleric having served the maximum
two terms.
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