UK campaign groups welcome Pope’s ‘green’ encyclical

LAUDATO SI’ calls on us to redefine the global economic system, to persuade businesses to change the way they operate and to rethink human relationships with the Earth, Cafod said this week in just one of many positive responses to the papal encyclical from British church and political leaders.

Neil Thorns of Cafod, the aid agency of the English and Welsh bishops’ conference, said the Pope’s letter had deliberately been released in a year of key United Nations moments that would affect humanity.

“He is reading the signs of his times and telling us that the human and environmental costs of our current way of life are simply too high,” said Mr Thorns.

The world’s political leaders had to think about how they wanted to be remembered, he said, and there was an opportunity now, with the UN Paris climate change talks on the horizon, for them to be cited as the generation that stood up and took responsibility for the urgent environmental issues of our time.

At Westminster, Environment Secretary Liz Truss said she was in agreement with the Pope’s thinking: “What I would say is that this government is absolutely committed to tackling climate change.” Her predecessor, Owen Paterson, is a climate change sceptic.

Meanwhile Bishop Declan Lang, whose remit as chairman of the English and Welsh bishops’ conference department for international affairs includes the environment, said Pope Francis’ encyclical reminded the world of its common humanity and its part in Creation.

“I think this is a due reminder to us all of the responsibility that we have towards one another and the whole environment and its well-being,” he said. “The Pope calls us to have an honest look at our lifestyle and to see in which areas we need to change.”

Penny Lawrence, deputy chief executive at Oxfam, also agreed that the Pope was right in what he said in his encyclical, saying: “Climate change is a problem for all of humanity that is hitting the world’s poorest hardest. [The Pope’s words] could and should add real urgency to efforts to protect people and planet.”

Meanwhile the Scottish Catholic aid agency, Sciaf, called the encyclical the most radical ever written on the environment. A statement on its website said: “Caritas aid agencies ... have spent years campaigning for action on climate change. We see the devastating effect natural disasters and shifting weather patterns have on the world’s poorest communities – the people who’ve done least to cause the problem.”