Pope Francis launched an initiative on Tuesday to make Catholic institutions ranging from families to universities to businesses environmentally sustainable in seven years, saying a “predatory attitude” toward the planet must end.
The Laudato Si Action Platform takes its name from the pope’s landmark 2015 encyclical on the need to protect the environment, reduce wasteful lifestyles, stem global warming and protect the poor from the effects of climate change.
At a news conference announcing the initiative, Cardinal Peter Turkson, head of the Vatican’s development office, said the pope has been invited to attend the United Nations’ Climate Change Conference (COP26) in November in Glasgow, Scotland. Turkson indicated that the pope likely will attend.
In a video message for the launch, the pope said the initiative would be “a seven-year journey that will see our communities committed in different ways to becoming totally sustainable, in the spirit of integral ecology”.—Reuters
