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On October 1, 2025, Pope Leo made an impassioned address to an audience at Castel Gandolfo, the Vatican’s summer residence, urging them to not allow climate change to become a divisive issue but rather one that unites all humanity. The occasion marked the 10th anniversary of Laudato Si, a papal pronouncement by his predecessor, Pope Francis, that urged Catholics and all others to preserve and protect the Earth. Here are the first two paragraphs of that message:
LAUDATO SI’, mi’ Signore” — “Praise be to you, my Lord.” In the words of this beautiful canticle, Saint Francis of Assisi reminds us that our common home is like a sister with whom we share our life and a beautiful mother who opens her arms to embrace us. “Praise be to you, my Lord, through our Sister, Mother Earth, who sustains and governs us, and who produces various fruit with colored flowers and herbs.”
This sister now cries out to us because of the harm we have inflicted on her by our irresponsible use and abuse of the goods with which God has endowed her. We have come to see ourselves as her lords and masters, entitled to plunder her at will. The violence present in our hearts, wounded by sin, is also reflected in the symptoms of sickness evident in the soil, in the water, in the air and in all forms of life. This is why the earth herself, burdened and laid waste, is among the most abandoned and maltreated of our poor; she “groans in travail” (Rom 8:22). We have forgotten that we ourselves are dust of the earth (cf. Gen 2:7); our very bodies are made up of her elements, we breathe her air and we receive life and refreshment from her waters.
“The challenges identified in Laudato Si are in fact even more relevant today than they were 10 years ago,” he told the audience. “Everyone in society, through nongovernmental organizations and advocacy groups, must put pressure on governments to develop and implement more rigorous regulations, procedures and controls. Citizens need to take an active role in political decision making at national, regional, and local levels. Only then will it be possible to mitigate the damage done to the environment.”
Pope Leo Speaks
The Pope didn’t say so directly, but his message was clearly meant to counter the unhinged rant of a certain US president who told the United Nations the previous week that climate change was a hoax, a scam, a scurrilous lie created by radical left-wing agitators who want to force athletes to undergo sex change operations so they can compete as women.
You might think such ravings would cause national leaders to invoke the 25th Amendment and remove this feeble old man from office due to mental incapacity, but in fact, about a third of Americans applaud his absurd notions and many of them style themselves as Catholics. Go figure.
The Guardian reports that Pope Leo made several references to Pope Francis and his followup encyclical in 2023 that challenged world leaders to commit to binding targets to slow climate change before it was too late. Oddly enough, only China, where Christians in general and Catholics in particular are few and far between, has embraced Francis’ message and taken concerted action to do precisely that.
Citing Francis’s text, Leo recalled that some leaders had chosen to “deride the evident signs of climate change, to ridicule those who speak of global warming and even to blame the poor for the very thing that affects them most.” He called for a change of heart to truly embrace the environmental cause and said every Christian should be onboard.
“We cannot love God, whom we cannot see, while despising his creatures. Nor can we call ourselves disciples of Jesus Christ without participating in his outlook on creation and his care for all that is fragile and wounded,” he said. On stage with the Pope was a large chunk of melting glacial ice from Greenland and tropical ferns.
The New York Times reports that in July, Pope Leo inaugurated a new rite for Catholic Mass that asks “God for the ability to care for creation.” Last month, he spoke of the “injustice, violations of international law and the rights of peoples, grave inequalities and the greed that fuels them are spawning deforestation, pollution and the loss of biodiversity.”
Multi-Lateralism In Tatters
Michael Czerny, who was one of Francis’ closest collaborators on the environment and remains head of the Vatican ministry that addresses climate issues, said during an interview at the Vatican last Wednesday that the polarized geopolitical landscape makes cooperation on climate action difficult.
“It’s very, very hard to see, with multi-lateralism in tatters, how you can face other issues which, while they have local or regional roots and local and regional consequences, nevertheless are the case throughout the world. I think our capacity to cooperate is deteriorating rapidly.”
Pope Leo quoted that 2023 encyclical, in which Pope Francis challenged world leaders before a UN conference to commit to binding targets to slow climate change before it was too late. He recalled that some leaders had chosen to “deride the evident signs of climate change, to ridicule those who speak of global warming and even to blame the poor for the very thing that affects them most,” while calling for a change of heart to truly embrace the environmental emergency.
Pope Leo has embraced Pope Francis’ environmental message by giving his blessing to a Vatican plan to turn an agricultural field north of Rome into a vast solar farm. Once it is up and running, the farm is expected to make Vatican City the world’s first carbon-neutral state, The Guardian said.
Taking Small Steps
“We’re not going to solve the problem instantly of course,” Piers Forster, former chairman of a climate advisory board in the UK and a professor of climate physics at the University of Leeds in England, told the New York Times. “Every little step and every little statement by someone as important as Pope Leo can clearly begin to move populations and countries in the right direction.”
Taking our cue from Forster, we encourage our readers, regardless of their religious beliefs, to challenge their priests, ministers, pastors, rabbi, imams, gurus, or other leaders to support Pope Leo in his call to tend to the needs of the planet as a sacred duty. Religion does not mean sitting passively and being preached to. If your religious leader is not taking the plight of the Earth seriously, speak up and ask why not. Your family, friends, and neighbors will thank you.
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