Pope to make climate action a moral obligation
By James Macintyre
Published: 22 September 2007
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article2987811.ece
The Pope is expected to use his first address to the United Nations to
deliver a powerful warning over climate change in a move to adopt
protection of the environment as a "moral" cause for the Catholic
Church and its billion-strong following.
The New York speech is likely to contain an appeal for sustainable
development, and it will follow an unprecedented Encyclical (a message
to the wider church) on the subject, senior diplomatic sources have
told The Independent.
It will act as the centrepiece of a US visit scheduled for next April
the first by Benedict XVI, and the first Papal visit since 1999
and round off an environmental blitz at the Vatican, in which the Pope
has personally led moves to emphasise green issues based on the belief
that climate change is affecting the poorest people on the planet, and
the principle that believers have a duty to "protect creation".
