Pope Francis had a not-so-subtle gift for President Trump when they met at the Vatican on Wednesday: a copy of his 2015 encyclical on climate change.
Pope Francis had a not-so-subtle gift for President Trump when the two leaders met at the Vatican on Wednesday: a copy of his 2015 plea for sweeping global action to fight climate change.
The 184-page papal encyclical, titled “Laudato Si,’ ” or “Praise Be to You, ” declares that the world is indeed growing warmer and places the blame on a culture of instant gratification, the reckless pursuit of profits, an alarming preoccupation with technology and political shortsightedness.
Trump, however, has called climate change a hoax and is considering pulling the United States out of an agreement reached in Paris in which world leaders pledged to fight global warming by reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
The encyclical was one of three documents presented to Trump along with some of the pope’s writings about the family and the joy of the gospel.
“Well, I’ ll be reading them, ” Trump said.
Here are some of the pope’s key messages on what he described Wednesday as “the care of our common home, the environment.”
Consumption, waste and environmental change have so outpaced the planet’s capacity that they can only lead to catastrophe, the pope wrote. “We may well be leaving to coming generations debris, desolation and filth.”
At the root of the problem, the pope wrote, are a “disordered desire to consume more than what is really necessary” and a “use and throw away culture.”
The pope argued that industrialized nations were mostly responsible and have an obligation to help poorer ones confront a crisis whose gravest effects are felt by the most vulnerable.
“Human beings, while capable of the worst, are also capable of rising above themselves, ” the pope wrote, “choosing again what is good, and making a new start, despite their mental and social conditioning.”
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