Faiths join climate marches

Christians were prominent in last Sunday’s climate marches around the world, lobbying this week’s meeting of world leaders at a UN climate summit on 23 September in New York. The meeting was in preparation for a conference in Paris in December 2015 aimed at finalising a new global agreement.

More than 2,800 events were held in 166 countries, and the largest, a “People’s Climate March” through Manhattan of 300,000 people was the largest climate-related protest in history. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon joined the march. At least 10,000 people of faith gathered in advance of the New York march for prayer, speeches, music, and with a huge ark and an inflatable mosque. Senior Catholics in this lobby were Fr Michael Czerny of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, Honduran Cardinal Oscar Rodríguez, president of Caritas Internationalis, and Nigerian Cardinal John Onaiyekan of Abuja.

The Vatican Secretary of State, Pietro Parolin, sent a message to the UN summit saying that “human inaction” in the face of global warming “carries great risks”. “Prudence must prevail,” he wrote, and this required “a great political and economic commitment on the part of the international community.”

The Bishop of London, Richard Chartres, told the 40,000-strong London march: “We are stewards of the Earth.”