Ahead Of Philadelphia Visit, Pope Condemns Pollution, Climate Change

Pope Francis urged governments, organizations, and individuals around the world to work together to restore environmental damage done to the planet and stave off climate change in an encyclical released Wednesday.

More than just a clarion call for political leaders, the 37 thousand word document is also an environmental treatise that asks individuals to reexamine their relationship with the living world.

Francis will be visiting Philadelphia this September during the World Meeting of Families, and visitors from around the country and around the world will be in the greater metropolitan region for the event.

Thousands of residents in surrounding counties, including Montgomery and Chester, are opening up their homes for visitors to stay.

Specific sections of the encyclical identify urban pollution and the ecological problems facing crowded metropolitan areas like the Philadelphia suburbs.

Nowadays, for example, we are conscious of the disproportionate and unruly growth of many cities, which have become unhealthy to live in, not only because of pollution caused by toxic emissions but also as a result of urban chaos, poor transportation, and visual pollution and noise. Many cities are huge, inefficient structures, excessively wasteful of energy and water.

Although he has made his stance on climate change known in past speeches and essays, the encyclical crystallizes official church doctrine, and could place pressure on policymakers worldwide.

“Neighborhoods, even those recently built, are congested, chaotic and lacking in sufficient green space,” Francis wrote. “We were not meant to be inundated by cement, asphalt, glass and metal, and deprived of physical contact with nature.”

Encyclicals are generally considered one of the most important methods of communication used by the Pope, behind only Apostolic Exhortations.

The document adds to his controversial legacy as a reformist who is more than willing to actively engage with pressing political and cultural issues outside of the church.

While there are no specifically environmental topics on the agenda for the World Meeting in September, the broad theme of love and family could be broached in the context of nature.

“The urgent challenge to protect our common home Includes a concern to bring the whole human family together to seek a sustainable and integral development,” Francis said. “For we know that things can change.”

Photo courtesy of Vatican.va