Pope in Kenya: we must choose to improve or destroy the environment

Pope in Kenya: we must choose to improve or destroy the environment

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Thursday addressed the United Nations family in Nairobi encouraging its staff to pursue its work for human development and protection of the environment for the common good.

He urged them to listen to “the cry rising up from humanity and the earth itself, a cry that needs to be heard by the international community.

In Nairobi, Vatican Radio’s Linda Bordoni reports:

Even before crossing the threshold of the United Nations Office at Nairobi headquarters on Thursday, Pope Francis planted a tree in the UN Compound garden.

A simple, symbolic act, so meaningful in many cultures.

And that’s exactly how the Pope set the tone for his eagerly awaited address to the UN and its Agencies that are entrusted to work for a better human future and to care for the environment.

Singled out as one of the highlights of Pope Francis’ Kenya visit just days before Climate Change talks in Paris, and just as a new report warns that 2015 could be the hottest year on record, those present knew Francis was not going to mince his words.

“In this international context – he said – we are confronted with a choice which cannot be ignored: either to improve or to destroy the environment”.

Quoting frequently from his encyclical “Laudato Sì". On Care for our Common Home”, Francis immediately shone the light on the need for leaders and policymakers to urgently reach “a global and transformational agreement based on the principles of solidarity, justice, equality and participation”.

“An agreement – he continued – which targets three complex and interdependent goals: lessening the impact of climate change, fighting poverty and ensuring respect for human dignity”.

And in hard hitting words the Pope went on to speak of how economy and politics need to be placed at the service of peoples, not for profit and to the detriment of the poor.

He called for an adoption of a culture of care as opposed to the current “throwaway” culture of waste where – he said – “people use and discard themselves, others and the environment” with far reaching consequences especially on the weakest members of our one human family.

And forgetting nothing and no one Pope Francis reminded his listeners of the rising numbers of migrants fleeing from growing poverty aggravated by environmental degradation.

He spoke of the effects of social breakdown in urban settlements: violence, drug abuse and trafficking, loss of identity.

He shone the light on the exploitation and illegal trade of natural resources – specifically mentioning ivory trafficking and the killing of elephants!

Pope Francis full heartedly decried the fact we are growing accustomed to the suffering of others, and said: “We have no right”.

“We are faced – he said - with a great political and economic obligation to rethink and correct the dysfunctions and distortions of the current model of development”.

But it wasn’t all darkness. “Human beings – the Pope said – while capable of the worst, are also capable of rising above themselves, choosing again what is good and making a new start”.

“May humanity at the dawn of the twenty-first century – Pope Francis appealed - be remembered for having generously shouldered its grave responsibilities.”

And coming back to the tree, as Francis mentioned at the very beginning: it’s a simple gesture and a powerful invitation to continue the battle against deforestation and desertification as well as an incentive to keep trusting, hoping and working to reverse situations of injustice and deterioration”.

In Nairobi with Pope Francis, I’m Linda Bordoni

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