Vatican City – Pope Francis and the Orthodox Christian leader, Patriarch Bartholomew, on Friday for a collective response from world leaders to climate change, saying the planet is “deteriorating and vulnerable people
are the first to be affected”.
The appeal came three months after American President Donald Trump withdrew from a global agreement struck in Paris to limit Greenhouse gas emissions.
“We urgently appeal to those in positions of social and economic, as well as political and cultural, responsibility to hear the cry of the earth and attend to needs of the marginalized,” Francis and Bartholomew said in a joint statement.
“Above all, the leaders of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics and up to 300 million Orthodox Christians asked for a response to the plea of billions and support (for) the consensus of the world for the healing of our wounded creation.”
The joint message was not addressed to any specific world leader. Many were dismayed when the U.S. backed out of the Paris Accord, a decision a senior Vatican official later called “a disaster.” (Reuters/NAN)