Pope Francis' 2015 Mass in Tacloban, Philippines, illustrated his deep concern for climate change, as he comforted Typhoon Haiyan survivors amidst another approaching storm. His experience highlighted the devastating impact of extreme weather on vulnerable populations, leading to his groundbreaking encyclical, "Praised Be." This document, aimed at influencing the 2015 Paris climate talks, criticized the profit-driven economy of the global north for environmental degradation, calling it an urgent moral issue. Francis emphasized that marginalized groups, including Indigenous peoples and islanders, suffer the most from environmental crises, establishing him as a pivotal figure in the global environmental movement.
"So many of you have lost everything. I don't know what to tell you," Francis told the crowd in Tacloban's muddy airport field as the wind nearly toppled candlesticks on the altar.
The document, written to inspire global negotiators at the 2015 Paris climate talks, accused the "structurally perverse," profit-driven economy of the global north of ravaging Earth and turning it into a "pile of filth."
The poor, Indigenous peoples and islanders like those in Tacloban suffered the most, he argued, bearing the brunt of increasing droughts, extreme storms, deforestation and pollution.
It was the first ecological encyclical, and it affirmed the Argentine Jesuit, who in his youth studied to be a chemist, as an authoritative voice in the environmental movement.
Collection
[
|
...
]