Pope meets with EU environmental ministers

September 16, 2015

Pope Francis met with the environmental ministers of EU nations on September 16 and described the environment as a “collective good, the patrimony of all humanity, and the responsibility of each of us.”

During the audience, which took place in a meeting room adjacent to the Paul VI Audience Hall, the Pope emphasized three principles: solidarity, justice, and the participation of all stakeholders in decision-making.

Solidarity, he said, is a “word sometimes forgotten, sometimes abused in a sterile manner. We know that the persons most vulnerable to environmental degradation are the poor, who suffer the most serious consequences.”

In his discussion of justice, the Pontiff recalled his discussion of “ecological debt” in his encyclical Laudato Si’. This debt, he told the environmental ministers, is connected with commerce-related imbalances between North and South as well as the “disproportionate use of natural resources historically made by some states.”

 

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Further information:

• Udienza ai Ministri dell’Ambiente di Paesi Membri dell’Unione Europea (Holy See Press Office)