Faith-based communities and climate justice groups hold a candlelight vigil in Quezon City to call on Pope Francis to lead on climate action by committing to divest the Vatican Bank from fossil fuels during the pontiff's Philippine visit in January (Photo by LJ Pasion/350.org)
Climate advocates in the Philippines on Thursday lauded Pope Francis' forthcoming encyclical on the environment even as activists urged the Vatican to put into action the message of the encyclical by divesting its alleged financial investments in fossil fuel corporations.
The encyclical, titled Laudato Si, or “Be praised”, will be released on Thursday and is expected to lay out the pontiff’s position on the human impact on climate and the moral responsibility for protecting the environment — themes that Pope Francis has expressed in previous public addresses.
"Perhaps a miracle is happening before our eyes with the encyclical”, said Columban priest Fr John Leydon, co-convenor of the Global Catholic Climate Movement.
“Our leaders have failed us and continue to fail us. All people of good will need to act decisively and act now,” he said.
Jose Leon Dulce, a campaign coordinator for the Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment, said the encyclical should lead to more concrete action by the Church to protect the environment.
“We pray that [Laudato Si] will reflect the commitment of the Catholic Church to withdraw their financial investments in fossil fuel corporations and other activities that contribute to the alarming increase in global carbon emissions,” Dulce said.
Naderev Sano, former official of the Philippine Climate Change Commission, said the pope's encyclical would be "a powerful indictment" of a global economic system that has exploited the poor and the planet.
"Pope Francis has proven to be a pope of the poor and has lived [as] an example of a true leader. He has become the epitome of spiritual strength, solidarity with other faiths, and hope for the exploited," said Sano, who is leading a six-month “people’s pilgrimage” around the world to places hit hard by climate change.
The pilgrimage was launched earlier this month in the Pacific island of Vanuatu to highlight the effects of climate change. It will end in Paris before the November 30 start of the highly anticipated United Nations Climate Change Conference, during which nations are scheduled to negotiate a new global climate accord.
A growing number of faith-based groups have called on the Vatican to divest from fossil fuel corporations after the World Council of Churches last year announced that it was phasing out all such holdings.
"The climate change crisis is a reflection of a profound global moral crisis and as such, Church organizations play an important role in untangling us from this mess," said Sano.
"We hope Pope Francis’ teachings will further advance the just demands of the people of the world for a climate agreement that will legally bind capitalist countries and their corporations to drastically reduce their emissions," said Kalikasan's Dulce.
He added that environmental groups in the Philippines hope the papal encyclical "will put forward the rallying cry of the global environmental movement for a world economic and social system that prioritizes the people and the planet over profit".
Archbishop Socrates Villegas, president of the Bishops' Conference of the Philippines, said "the roots of our indifference to environmental and ecological concerns ... and the sinful dispositions in all of us" make the faithful "contributors to the depredation of a world entrusted to our stewardship".
Faith-based communities and climate justice groups in Quezon City call on Pope Francis to lead on climate action by committing to divest the Vatican Bank from fossil fuels during the pontiff's Philippine visit in January (Photo by LJ Passion/350.org)