Environment Day, the complete speech of the Pope in audience with Gedi

Dear brothers and sisters!

More than fifty years have passed since the inauguration in Stockholm on 5 June 1972 of the first major United Nations Conference on the Human Environment. It has given rise to various assemblies that have summoned the international community to discuss how humanity is doing managing our common home. This is why June 5 has become World Day of the Environment. I do not forget, when I went to Strasbourg, that then President Hollande he had invited to receive me the Minister of the Environment, Mme Ségolène Royal, and there he told me that he had heard that I was writing something about the environment. I told her yes, that I was thinking with a group of scientists and also with a group of theologians. And she said this to me: “Please, I publish before the Paris Conference”. And so it was done. And Paris was just a nice meeting, not for this document of mine, but because the meeting was of a high level. After Paris, unfortunately… And this worries me.

Many things have changed in this half century; just think of the advent of the new ones technologies, to the impact of transversal and global phenomena such as the pandemic, to the transformation of an increasingly globalized society [che] it makes us neighbors, but it does not make us brothers”. [1] We have witnessed a «growing awareness of the environment and the care of nature», developing «a sincere and painful concern for what is happening to our planet” (Encyclical Laudato si’, 19). Experts clearly highlight how the choices and actions implemented in this decade they will have impacts for thousands of years.[2] Our knowledge of the impact of ours has expanded actions on our common home and on those who inhabit it and who will inhabit it. This has increased also our sense of responsibility before God, who has entrusted us with the care of creation, before the next and in front of future generations.

«While humanity in the post-industrial period will perhaps be remembered as one of the most irresponsible for history, it is to be hoped that humanity at the beginning of the 21st century could be remembered for generously assuming his grave responsibilities” (ibid.165). The phenomenon of the change climate There recalls insistently at our responsibility: it particularly affects the poorest and most fragile, those who have the least contributed to its evolution. It is first a question of justice and then of solidarity. The climate change also brings us back to founding our action on responsible cooperation by everyone: our world is now too interdependent and cannot afford to be divided into blocs of countries that promote their interests in an isolated or unsustainable way.

«The wounds brought to humanity by the Covid-19 pandemic and by the phenomenon of change climate are comparable to those resulting from a global conflict,”[3] where the real enemy is the irresponsible behavior that has repercussions on all components of our humanity today e of tomorrow. The fishermen of San Benedetto del Tronto came to see me a few years ago, who in a year they managed to remove twelve tons of plastic from the sea!

As «in the aftermath of the Second World War, it is necessary that today the entire community international organization prioritizes the implementation of collegial, solidarity-based and forward-looking actions’,[4] recognizing «the greatness, the urgency and the beauty of the challenge before us» (Laudato si’15). A great, urgent and beautiful challenge, which requires a cohesive and proactive dynamic. It is a “big” and demanding challenge, because it requires a change of course, a decisive one change in the current model of consumption and production, too often steeped in the culture of indifference and waste, waste of the environment and waste of people. Today I am The groups from MacDonald, the restaurateur, came and told me that they have abolished plastic and everything everything is made with recyclable paper… Plastic is prohibited in the Vatican. And we succeeded 93%, mi they said, no plastic. They are steps, real steps that we must continue. Real steps.

Furthermore, as indicated by many parts of the scientific world, the change of this model it is “urgent” and can no longer be postponed. A great scientist recently said – some of you you were certainly present –: “Yesterday a niece of mine was born; I wouldn’t want my granddaughter between thirty years is in an uninhabitable world”. We must do something. It’s urgent, it can’t be postponed. We must consolidate “the dialogue on how we are building the future of the planet” (ibid., 14), well aware that living «the vocation of being guardians of God’s work is part essential to a virtuous existence, it is not something optional or even an aspect secondary» (ibid., 217) of our life experience.

It is, then, a “beautiful”, stimulating and achievable challenge: to pass from the culture of waste to styles of life marked by the culture of respect and care, care for creation and care for one’s neighbour, close or distant in space And In the time. There we find in front of to a I walk educational For a transformation of our society, both an individual and a community conversion (cf ibid., 219). There is no shortage of opportunities and initiatives that aim to seriously address this challenge.

I greet here the representatives of some cities of various continents, which make me think like this one challenge must be faced, in a subsidiary way, at all levels: from small daily choices to local to international policies. Again, the importance of cooperation must be recalled accountable at every level. We need everyone’s contribution. And this costs. I remember that those fishermen of San Benedetto del Tronto said to me: “For us at the beginning the choice was a bit difficult, because bringing plastic instead of fish didn’t make us any money”. But there was something: that love for creation was greater. Here is the plastic and the fish… And so they went on. But it costs!

It is necessary to accelerate this change of course in favor of one culture of care – how children are cared for – which places human dignity and the common good at the centre. And be it fueled by “thatalliance between human beings and the environment which must be a mirror of love creator of God, from whom we come and towards whom we are journeying”.[5] “Let’s not rob the new generations of hope for a better future.” [6]

Thanks for everything what you do.

[1] Benedict XVI, Encyclical Letter Caritas in veritate (29 June 2009), 19.
[2] See IPCC, Climate Change 2023 Synthesis Report, Summary for Policymakers, C. 1., p. 24.
[3] Message to the President of COP26, 29 October 2021.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Benedict XVI, Caritas in veritate, 50.
[6] Video-Message to the Climate Ambition Summit, 12 December 2020