Al Jazeera American posted a short article on Pope Francis’ recent address at the University of Molise in Italy which touched on the exploitation of earth and its many gifts:
“This is one of the greatest challenges of our time: to convert ourselves to a type of development that knows how to respect creation,” he told students, struggling farmers, and laid-off workers in a university hall.
“When I look at America, also my own homeland [South America], so many forests, all cut, that have become land … that can longer give life. This is our sin, exploiting the Earth and not allowing her to give us what she has within her,” the Argentine pope said in unprepared remarks.
The Argentinian Pope took the name Francis from St. Francis of Assisi of whom he said, “For me, he is the man of poverty, the man of peace, the man who loves and protects creation. These days we do not have a very good relationship with creation, do we?” Pope Francis is currently writing an encyclical on ecology and humanity’s relation with nature.
