2023-12-04 07:00:20
A pope in the land of black gold, as an apostle of “integral ecology” Furthermore ! The poster for this world premiere was tempting. Alas, François’ presence at the Conference of the Parties (COP28) on the climate in Dubai, scheduled for December 1 to 3, was canceled at the last minute due to his failing health.
His visit to this city of excess – symbol of the alliance of oil, technology and finance – offered him a platform to send an uncompromising message. The high point of a pontificate that began in March 2013, where his commitment to an inclusive economy and defense of the environment has never wavered.
Read by the Secretary of State of the Holy See, Pietro Parolin, Saturday December 2, the pope’s message will not have the impact it would have had if he had pronounced it himself. In this text addressed to the world, but especially to the gathering of one hundred and forty heads of state and government, bosses of Big Oil, bankers and lobbyists, he nevertheless abandoned nothing of his vision and of his well-established convictions. since his election.
For the head of the Catholic Church, “the devastation of creation is an offense to God”. More ” the situation is serious “ and his speech quickly turned towards a critique of the productivist system, in a barely veiled attack against liberalism: “The desire to produce and possess turned into obsession and led to limitless greed, which made the environment the object of unbridled exploitation. » Nothing new compared to his encyclical letter Laudato si, on safeguarding the common homeexcept that the situation has worsened since its publication in 2015, François is alarmed.
Read extracts from “Laudato si’”: Pope Francis: “Uniting the entire human family in the search for sustainable and integral development”
It justifies more than ever“integral ecology” of Laudato yes, in which “everything is closely linked”, the economy and ecology, the defense of those left behind and the protection of the planet. An approach “associating the cry of the poor with the cry of the Earth”will summarize the anthropologist and philosopher of science Bruno Latour.
In Dubai, Francis also breathed the spirit of his apostolic exhortation Praise God, addressed to the 1.3 billion Catholics. A text more accessible than Laudato yesfoundation of the ecological doctrine of the Church, like the encyclical Of the new things of Leo XIII (1891) had established his social doctrine.
Purposely published before COP28, Praise God denounces climate skeptics and “the contemptuous and unreasonable opinions that[il] meeting within the Catholic Church itself”. Above all, he attacks the domination of a “technocratic paradigm [qui] isolates us from what surrounds us” and makes technologies (even if he does not exclude them) the only remedy for the planet’s ills. This is a “homicidal pragmatism”, he decides. Until you understand “groups castigated as “radicalized””Who “fill a void in society”and to advocate “a widespread change from the irresponsible lifestyle of the Western model”.
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