China Post
AP
Nicole Winfield And Jennifer Peltz ,
September 26, 2015,
NEW YORK — Pope Francis declared Friday that there is a “right of the environment” and that mankind has no authority to abuse it, telling more than 100 world leaders and diplomats at the United Nations that urgent action is needed to halt the destruction of God’s creation.
Hoping to spur concrete commitments at upcoming climate change negotiations in Paris, Francis accused the world’s powerful countries of indulging a “selfish and boundless thirst” for money by ravaging the planet’s natural resources and impoverishing the weak and disadvantaged in the process.
He asserted that the poor have inherent rights to education and what he has termed the “three L’s” — lodging, labor and land.
Francis’ speech, the fifth by a pope to the U.N., was a distillation of his recent teaching document on the environment, “Praise Be,” which has delighted liberals and environmentalists and drawn scorn from big business interests.
By bringing the document to life before the U.N., Francis made clear his priorities.
Environment, Humanity
“Any harm done to the environment, therefore, is harm done to humanity,” he said.
Francis’ speech kicked off what was expected to be a whirlwind day in New York that blended the powerful and the poor, from the solemnity of ground zero to the struggles of East Harlem.
His visit was scheduled to include events as large as a processional drive through Central Park, as personal as meetings with schoolchildren and immigrants, and as inspiring for the faithful as Mass for thousands at Madison Square Garden.
Francis was greeted on his arrival at the U.N. by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, a key supporter of his eco-friendly agenda. In his opening remarks, Ban praised Francis for his moral leadership.
“You are at home not in palaces, but among the poor; not with the famous, but with the forgotten,” he said.
Among those in the audience for Francis’ speech was Nobel peace laureate Malala Yousefzai, the young Pakistani education campaigner. Also on hand were German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Bill and Melinda Gates.
While his visit marked the fifth time a pope has addressed the United Nations, the Vatican flag was raised for the first time just before Francis’ arrival. The General Assembly recently agreed to allow the U.N.’s two observer states, the Holy See and Palestine, to fly their flags alongside those of the 193 member states.
Speaking in the packed General Assembly hall, Francis stated that “a right of the environment” exists.
He said the universe is the result of a “loving decision by the creator, who permits man respectfully to use creation for the good of his fellow men and for the glory of the creator: He is not authorized to abuse it, much less destroy it.”
Echoing his encyclical’s key message, he said a “selfish and boundless thirst for power and material prosperity leads both to the misuse of available natural resources and to the exclusion of the weak and disadvantaged.”
