The lead bishop on the environment welcomes Pope Francis’ post-synodal exhortation as an urgent call to care for our common home, and a demand that individuals, parishes and communities take action to prevent climate catastrophe

In his apostolic exhortation on the Amazon synod, Querida Amazonia (“Beloved Amazonia”), Pope Francis reminds Catholics that “the Lord, who is the first to care for us, teaches us to care for our brothers and sisters and the environment which he daily gives us”.

The Pope is clear that the world must work in solidarity with the people of the Amazon, that their voices must be heard and their ways of development respected. For too long the cry of the Earth has been ignored as we have pushed Creation beyond its limits, with countries in the global north profiting while the cries of indigenous peoples such as those in the Amazon, and others living in poverty in the global south, have been ignored.