The Vatican recently hosted multiple conferences on environmental stewardship and related issues such as poverty, indigenous rights, migrants and refugees, healthcare, employment, and empowering youth.
On May 15, the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue organized a conference on the theme, “Dharma and Logos – Dialogue and Cooperation in a Complex Age.” 200 representatives of traditions originating in India participated in the meeting with Christians and committed to working together for human dignity and environmental stewardship.
On June 8-9, the world’s top oil company chiefs gathered in Rome for “Energy Transition and Care for our Common Home,” a conference on climate change and transitioning away from fossil fuel dependence. Attendees included senior executives from British Petroleum, Royal Dutch Shell, Norway’s Equinor, Mexico’s Pemex, and ExxonMobil joined by major international financiers, asset managers, and executives in charge of public pension funds.
Pope Francis advocated for a long-term global strategy to provide energy security and precise commitments to meet the problem of climate change, encourage economic stability, public health, the protection of the environment, and integral human development. He said, “This is a challenge of epochal proportions.”
On July 5-6, the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development convened an ecological leadership summit to commemorate the third anniversary of the encyclical Laudato Si’. The conference “Saving Our Common Home and the Future of Life on Earth” orients forthcoming events such as the Global Climate Action Summit, the annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank Group (WBG), and the 24th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
In his opening remarks, Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin commented on the broken relation between man and God, neighbor, and the Earth. He warned that the situation is precarious and totters on the edge of catastrophe.
Pope Francis also spoke to participants. He expressed concern that an unsustainable contemporary lifestyle will leave future generations only rubble, deserts, and trash. He invited serious involvement from youth and indigenous peoples, especially those from the Amazon region. He said, “It is the young who will have to face the consequences of the current environmental and climate crisis… It grieves us to see the lands of indigenous peoples expropriated and their cultures trampled on by predatory schemes and by new forms of colonialism, fueled by the culture of waste and consumerism… How much we can learn from them!”
On July 8-10, Catholics assembled with experts from the business sector, banks, academia, philanthropic foundations, humanitarian organizations and many others interested in concrete ways to support at-risk youth, migrants and refugees, and climate change adaptation. The Impact Investing conference is a catalyst for collaboration and commitments to address systemic challenges and help the most vulnerable around the world.
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