The block of ice melts while the Pope speaks. The bowl in front of him is filled with the water symbol of the tears of the world. The Raising Hope meeting, arousing hope, organized by the Laudato Movement yes ‘ – in collaboration with many ecclesial and social realities – to celebrate the ten years of Pope Francis’ encyclical on full ecology, makes, even plastically, the image of a distinguishing planet. Yet, while climate changes infierise, while wars cause more and more poverty, death and suffering, there are sparks of hope everywhere. “These ten years of walking have not been easy,” say the organizers looking to the future and that meeting of the COP which will take place in November in Brazil, at the gates of that Amazonian forest, the lung of the world, fiercely attacked by unscrupulous exploiters, fires, deforestations.
Pope Leone returns to Castel Gandolfo once again, at the Mariopoli center, after being in the pontifical villas, to meet the participants in the international symposium.
In his words, that call to “where is your brother?” Resounds in his words? ” That Pope Francis had already shouted when in Lampedusa he had touched the drama of migrants who died at sea. And today Leone returns to that song by Genesis by addressing, at the end of his speech, to each one the question of questions when “God will ask us if we have cultivated and kept well this world that he has created, for the benefit of everyone and future generations, and if we took care of our brothers and sisters. So what will we reply? ».
The pontiff encourages the Laudato movement yes and recalls that “from the beginning he accompanied the spread and implementation of the message of Pope Francis. This encyclical has strongly stimulated the Catholic Church and many people of good will, becoming a starting point for dialogues and reflection groups, school and university programs, collaborations and projects of various types in every continent. Many dioceses and numerous religious institutes have been inspired by actions of attention to the common house, which help at the same time to put the poor and excluded back to the center. The impact has come to the international leaders, to the areas of ecumenism and interreligious dialogue, to the economic and entrepreneurial ones, as well as to theological and bioethical studies. The language of the “care of the common house” has been incorporated into academic, scientific and political debates ».
Before entering the classroom, the pontiff had entertained himself with Arnold Schwarzenegger. Guest of the conference, the former California governor recalls, speaking before Leone, encouraged to work together because “we can do it together. The Catholic Church has a billion and 400 thousand believers, 400 thousand priests, 600 thousand nuns, 200 thousand churches. Think about how much strength, How much power also represented by our environmental movement to end pollution “. Remember that when he was elected he was not an environmentalist. Indeed, “I was driving the Hammer, who then polluted a lot”. Then, however, he heard that “God gave me an opportunity regarding the question of the environment and I sat with hundreds of scientists and I instructed myself. I understood how many people died every year because of the environment and I understood that you have to make a difference ». And therefore, Although the Bush administration tried to stop the Californian laws in favor of the environment, “we went on anyway. California has the most rigid environmental legislation and we are the fourth economy for growth in the world, even if they told us that our laws would ruin the economy. And then they told me that it could not be done because the Bush government was against. But when the Federal Government stopped us, we use the legal streets, up to the Supreme Court that deliberated that we had reason and therefore we have beaten the federal government. Never surrender, we do not use the federal government as an excuse ». And therefore even now it is not Trump who can stop innovation in defense of the environment. «We have to do everything we can because at the local level the question is what the mayor, the junta, the Senate of the State, the universities, the schools does. We have to ask ourselves what each of us can do. ” He explains the importance of communication because only when, in California, had a spot with a child be broadcast that could not breathe due to pollution 60 percent of the population realized the danger and supported the new laws “. We must “leave a better world to our children,” he insists.
And this is what Pope Leone also underlines. Go ahead because “If there is an inaction on these themes it is you who work together to make the difference.” Remember the concerns and recommendations of Pope Francis who “have been appreciated and implemented not only by Catholics. Many, even outside the church, felt understood, represented and supported in this precise historical period. In particular, his analysis of the situation, the proposal of the paradigm of full ecology, the persistent reference to dialogue, the appeal to face the deep causes of the problems and to “unite the whole human family In the search for a sustainable and integral development “they aroused vast interest”. But then it almost seems to respond to President Trump, who had ridiculed, in the discourse to the United Nations those who beat to preserve the environment. “Over the years we have gone from a phase of understanding and study of the encyclical, to another implementation”, he explains. Adding: «Now, what is necessary why the care of the common house and the attention to the cry of the earth and the poor do not appear as a passing fashion or, worse still, are seen and felt as divisive themes? The apostolic exhortation Laudate Deum, published two years ago, noted that, after Laudato yes, “there were no people who tried to minimize” the increasingly evident signs of climate changeto “ridicule those who speak of global warming” and even to blame the poor of what more than others suffer “. A real “ecology conversion” that returns to the heart. «We must go from collecting data to taking care; From environmental speeches to an ecological conversion that transforms the personal and community lifestyle “underlines Leone. “For those who believe, it is a conversion not different from the one that directs us to the living God, because we cannot love the God who does not see himself despising his creatures, and one cannot say disciples of Jesus Christ without participating in his gaze on creation and his care for what is fragile and injured”.
He returns to the description of St. Francis made by his predecessor: «He lived with simplicity and in a wonderful harmony with God, with others, with nature and with himself. In him, the concern for nature, justice towards the poor, commitment in society and inner peace are inseparable to what point “. And hopes that “each of us can grow in these four directions: with God, with others, with nature and with himself, in a constant attitude of conversion. Full ecology lives on all these dimensions: by committing ourselves in them we can increase hope, implementing the interdisciplinary approach of the laudato si ‘and the call to unity and collaboration that arises. We are a single family, with a common father who makes the sun rise and fall the rain over everyone; We live in the same planet, of which we must take care together. I therefore renew a strong appeal to the unit around full ecology and peace! “. He praises the collaboration between all because “society, through non -governmental bodies and intermediate associations, must put pressure on governments to develop regulatory regulations, procedures and controls more rigorous. If citizens do not supervise political – national, regional and municipal power -, it is not possible to counter environmental damage. In addition, municipal laws can be more effective if there are agreements between close populations to support the same policies ».
Therefore hopes that “the next international leaders – I think of the thirtieth Conference of the United Nations on climate change (Cop30), the session of the Fao food safety committee and at the top of the water that the UN is organizing for 2026 – can listen to the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor, the cry of families, indigenous peoples, involuntary migrants, believers all over the world. At the same time “encourages” all, especially young people, parents and those who operate in local and national administrations and in the institutions to make their contribution to the “cultural, spiritual and educational challenge”, always and tenaciously aiming for the common good. There is no room for indifference or for resignation “.
Also because, as he pointed out, in presenting the conference, Cardinal Jaime Spengler, archbishop of Porto Alegre, president of the Episcopal Conference of Brazil and Celam, “we must remember that the planet can survive without us, but we cannot survive without the planet”.
