Polluting is Immoral, says Pope Francis

Watch Pope Francis Message of May 21, 2014: Polluting is Sinful

On Wednesday, Pope Francis took climate change deniers and corporate polluters to task and made the religious case for tackling climate change, imploring his fellow Christians to become “Custodians of Creation” and sounding the alarm bells about the catastrophic effects of global climate change.

In front of a very large crowd in Rome, the Pope gave a short address in which he made the case that the “beauty of nature and the grandeur of the cosmos” is indeed a Christian value:

“Safeguard Creation,” he said. “Because if we destroy Creation, Creation will destroy us! Never forget this!”

According to ThinkProgress:

The pope centered his environmentalist theology around the biblical creation story in the book of Genesis, where God is said to have created the world, declared it “good,” and charged humanity with its care. Francis also made reference to his namesake, Saint Francis of Assisi, who was a famous lover of animals, and appeared to tie the ongoing environmental crisis to economic concerns — namely, instances where a wealthy minority exploits the planet at the expense of the poor.

“Creation is not a property, which we can rule over at will; or, even less, is the property of only a few: Creation is a gift, it is a wonderful gift that God has given us, so that we care for it and we use it for the benefit of all, always with great respect and gratitude,” Pope Francis said.

“But when we exploit Creation we destroy the sign of God’s love for us, in destroying Creation we are saying to God: ‘I don’t like it! This is not good!’ ‘So what do you like?’ ‘I like myself!’ – Here, this is sin! Do you see?”

See an Article here.

Also, watch the video here.

Tagged as: climate change, Creation, Earth, fracking, global warming, greenhouse gases, Pope Francis