By Verghese V Joseph –
In a message to the leaders of the upcoming COP26, a United Nations climate change conference in Glasgow, Scotland, the Holy Father Francis called for an effective responses to the ecological crisis in which we live and, in this way, concrete hope for future generations. He was addressing the listeners of BBC Radio on Friday.
Climate change and the Covid-19 pandemic has revealed the radical vulnerability of everyone and everything. This therefore raises numerous doubts and perplexities about economic systems and the ways in which societies are organized.
“Our securities have collapsed, our appetite for power and our craving for control are crumbling. We found ourselves weak and full of fears, immersed in a series of “crises”: health, environmental, food, economic, social, humanitarian, ethical. Transversal crises, strongly interconnected and harbingers of a “perfect storm”, capable of breaking the “bonds” that envelop our society within the precious gift of creation,” Pope Francis said.
Urging the leaders, he said, “Every crisis requires vision, planning skills and speed of execution, rethinking the future of our common home and our common project. These crises confront us with radical choices that are not easy. Indeed, every moment of difficulty also contains opportunities, which cannot be wasted.”
Stressing that, “They can be dealt with by prevailing attitudes of isolation, protectionism, exploitation; or they can represent a real opportunity for transformation, a real point of conversion, not only in a spiritual sense,” he advised.
Pope Francis warned that, “This last path is the only one that leads towards a “luminous” horizon and can only be pursued through a renewed global co-responsibility, a new solidarity based on justice, on sharing a common destiny and on the awareness of the unity of the human family, a project of God for the world.”
Calling upon the leaders, he said, “It is a challenge of civilization in favor of the common good and a change of perspective, in mind and gaze, which must place the dignity of all human beings of today and tomorrow at the center of all our actions. The most important lesson that these crises transmit to us is that it is necessary to build together , because there are no borders, barriers, political walls, within which to hide. And we know it: you can’t get out of a crisis alone.”
The Holy Father cites an instance when a few days ago, on October 4, he was meeting with religious leaders and scientists to sign a joint appeal calling for more responsible and coherent actions both ourselves and our leaders. On that occasion, he was struck by the testimony of one of the scientists who said: “My granddaughter, just born, will have to live in an uninhabitable world within 50 years, if this is the case. We cannot allow it!” he stressed.
He called upon everyone’s commitment to that urgent change of direction is fundamental; a commitment that must also be nourished by one’s own faith and spirituality.
“Humanity has never had as many means to achieve this goal as it has today. The political decision makers who will take part in COP26 in Glasgow are urgently called to offer effective responses to the ecological crisis in which we live and, in this way, concrete hope for future generations. But all of us – it is worth repeating, whoever and wherever we are – can play a role in changing our collective response to the unprecedented threat of climate change and the degradation of our common home,” he added.