After calling for peace in Ukraine the day before, Pope Francis on Thursday before 6,500 young people invoked the “urgency” of global warming.
On the second day of his visit to Lisbon on the occasion of World Youth Days (WYD), the Sovereign Pope considered that: “We must recognize the urgency of taking care of the common home”.
However, “this cannot be done without (…) a change in the anthropological vision that is the basis of economics and politics,” declared the Argentine Jesuit during a meeting before students at the Catholic University of Lisbon.
“integrated environment”
Thus, “we cannot be content with simple palliative measures or timid and vague compromises,” the 86-year-old insisted.
Francis defended again on this occasion the concept of “integral ecology”, a strong sign of his pontificate, linking the environment with social justice and a close integration between humans and nature.
“We need an integrated environment, to listen to the suffering of the planet at the same time as the suffering of the poor, and to put the drama of desertification in parallel with the tragedy of refugees, which is the issue of migration with a low birth rate,” he pleaded.
