The former president of Ireland, Mary Robinson, was among a delegation from The Elders that met Pope Francis in the Vatican this week to discuss climate change, refugees and human rights in Myanmar.
Later this month the Pope is to visit Myanmar, which has been widely criticised over its treatment of the Muslim Rohingya people, with whom Francis has expressed solidarity.
The Elders are an independent group of global leaders working together for peace and human rights. At the Vatican on Monday, members of the group including the former UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, and international negotiator Lakhdar Brahimi, heard Mrs Robinson say that women are powerful agents for change in tackling the global threat of climate change.
Ahead of the papal meeting, at Trinity College Dublin (TCD), she had launched a collection of essays on the Pope’s 2015 encyclical, Laudato si’: An Irish Response, edited by eco- theologian Fr Sean McDonagh. On Monday she presented a copy to the Pope.
In her address at TCD, Mrs Robinson said the recent hurricanes which hit the Caribbean, the US and parts of Ireland are testimony to the cost of climate change. She highlighted how her foundation had gathered evidence showing women are disproportionately affected by climate change.
Of Laudato si’ she said, “I think it is a pity Pope Francis didn’t emphasise more the importance of the empowerment of girls and women to his vision of the world.” Fr McDonagh told The Tablet he would like to see the Church announce a synod on the environment which would enable the faithful to grapple with the themes and issues in the same way as they had discussed the family. He also called for seminaries to better integrate this subject into their formation studies.
Former head of the Mater Dei Institute of Education in Dublin, Dr Dermot Lane, who contributed an essay to the collection, called on the US bishops to “take up the mandate they have been given by the Bishop of Rome in Laudato si’ and introduce it to their flock and people”. He said the bishops needed to get behind Francis and raise the consciousness of US Catholics. “It is within their remit to do something about this now as the most urgent issue facing humanity,” he said.