Dear Friends,
It was encouraging to see Pope Leo and King Charles pray together at the Vatican.
Not only was it an historic display of Christian unity, but, as the Vatican’s official news agency reported, the visit – originally scheduled for April, but cancelled due to Pope Francis’s ill health – was always intended to highlight the environmental crisis ten years after the publication of Pope Francis’s groundbreaking encyclical, ‘Laudato Si’’. Yet this visit, albeit with a different Pope, still brought together two leaders who share a passion for protecting our common home, and who both understand the role that churches and faith communities must play in caring for creation.
In fact, earlier this month, Pope Leo participated in the ‘Raising Hope’ climate conference, which we reflect on in this month’s newsletter as part of our interview with conference organiser Dr Lorna Gold; at that conference, Pope Leo blessed a 20,000 year-old fragment of the Greenland Ice Sheet and criticised those who minimise the impact of rising global temperatures.
Though we currently have many examples of poor leadership around the world – with many of those leaders actively working against efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and restore nature – we give thanks for King Charles and Pope Leo. And we pray that as we approach COP30, more Christians will become climate campaigners and advocates for God’s creation.
