AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia
Pope Francis delivers his message during his visit to the San Francisco Church in Quito, Ecuador, Tuesday, July 7, 2015. Francis is making his first visit as pope to his Spanish-speaking neighborhood. He travels to three South American nations, Ecuador, Bolivia and Paraguay.

Pope Francis: Protecting Mother Earth Is Our Duty, Not an Option

ICTMN Staff
7/8/15

Speaking to an audience that included Indigenous Peoples of the Equatorial Amazon, Pope Francis on July 7 renewed his emphasis on environmental stewardship and justice as moral obligations and urged the world’s leaders to face the reality of climate change.

"One thing is certain: we can no longer turn our backs on reality, on our brothers and sisters, on Mother Earth," he said in a speech at the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador, quoted by Reuters. "It is wrong to turn aside from what is happening all around us, as if certain situations did not exist or have nothing to do with our lives.”

His choice of Ecuador was no accident, Reuters noted, given the region’s reliance on gas and oil drilling and the lack of environmental oversight in this most fragile and vital of ecosystems. The Amazon region has been notoriously polluted and its Indigenous Peoples persecuted, with poverty playing a key role in the environmental destruction.

"As stewards of these riches which we have received, we have an obligation toward society as a whole and toward future generations," Francis said, according to the Associated Press. "We cannot bequeath this heritage to them without proper care for the environment, without a sense of gratuitousness born of our contemplation of the created world."

The speech, part of a three-nation South America tour, comes on the heels of the June release of the Pope’s encyclical on climate change, a 192-page document that asserts that Indigenous Peoples can be key players in both mitigating and confronting the decline of our human habitat.

RELATED: Pope Francis: Indigenous Peoples 'Should Be the Principal Dialogue Partners' on Projects

In December 2014 the groundwork was laid for the initiative as word emerged that Pope Francis would be issuing the report, with the goal of influencing the climate change talks in Paris later this year.

RELATED: Pope Francis's New Year's Resolution: Tackle Climate Change

The Pope is next headed to Bolivia, where he will spend four hours in La Paz and meet with President Evo Morales, then will speak at a summit of grassroots groups before heading to Paraguay, according to AP. In September he travels to the United Nations to bring the environmental message to the United States.

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raininmyshoes's picture
raininmyshoes
Submitted by raininmyshoes on
I think the church betrayed the people long ago when they made deals for the fraud of kingdom, they were not watching over God's sheep, they robbed them and dumped them into slums. Jesus did not need any of that money and wealth, none of it. It is said if he is here on the earth anywhere he can be found among the poor. I am sure it is possible to find the Lord God, the Prince of Peace in the garbage places, then it would be to find him among the well dressed and overfed, gold banded. It would be holy, sacred and divine if the Pope would denounce these fraudulent nation state's of disgrace who have bombed and looted the people of Iraq and Afghanistan. The constant terror they train right here in the United States and then let loose throughout Central and South America so the people never have peace. I would bless the Pope myself if he could also mention the many people who have been forcibly removed from their Caribbean Island homes to make way for a military base. I would be in heaven if he would denounce all of Europe for turning away refugees fleeing from the ravages of war that the G8 benefit from. I would wish for him to be anointed to praise the little children who walked all the way from Central and South America, for their outstanding courage and bravery to walk that dangerous distance to knock on the giants door, Mr. Giant Dangerous U.S., can we stay at your house because you make our house so frightening. I would fall on my knee's and give praises if he denounced the fraud started so long ago. There was no royalty of anything or ordained by God to watch over his sheep, a game played out to exploit the people everywhere to enrich themselves, to live off the poor and all the robbery, murder and lies they could commit which has embroiled the world in suffering and despair to this very day. If they served God then they did not need anything at all but for the well being of God's children. These vicious wars never would have been destroying the lives of millions of dreams. There would be no poverty on the earth, the earth was not created to be poor but to provide abundantly for all her children. People would be living in their cultures happily as they had always done, instead of learning English. These technologies never would have been created that are so destructive to all life because they were not a part of any cultures teaching. What was there for any of them to do but speak the truth, and they were more worried about their own position or wealth. The Father asked us to speak the truth. The Earth is dying, that is a grave matter for all life. The many cultures of the regions of the Earth have been smashed through hate and greed. It is tragic and right in the gut, it should be said, that these are the utmost critical concerns and denounce those who are perpetrating it and profiting from it, namely the U.S. who is trespassing all over the world and has no true nation, no land and no law. Murder, theft, and lying are forbidden by the Creator, and a man Holy should dare to speak the truth and denounce it for the sake of God's children who are vulnerable to this vicious exploitation. I hope to imagine that had any of those of the Holy order devoted so would have denounced vociferously these crimes, then the slaughter in the America's would have been arrested and the slave ships would be destroyed and the people let out of their chains immediately and given comfort, and medicine for their trauma. Trillions of unimaginable tied up wealth and debt turned into slaughter and robbery over and over again, and betraying the Father, brother against brother, and sister against sister was filth and betrayal of the worse kind. It is hard to praise the comfortable who are afraid to speak truth because they may end up joining the afflicted, showing the people faith is not so strong but money matters. It is divinely honorable of the highest royalty that the little angels of children who walked through the most dangerous and deadliest places in the world to knock on the perpetrators door of murder and madness, to seek a place of refuge in its kingdom of comforts. Praise the Divinity in those little Children, they are braver than all the rich and their well armed mercenary soldiers. I honor their life, and ask the Father to bless them. That was a sacred and holy journey; feet that touched the sacred earth where death and destruction wear their shroud, foot steps in truth and cleanliness were spoken for life, and earth. Divine is the spirit in child who knows the truth and walks upon the earth and goes to the door to request that violent inhabitant, cease your madness upon our innocence and the love of our home, this earth. Brave soldiers little Angels, you were the ambassadors of humanity over all the earth, and for the mother herself you honored the Father.
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