Vatican newspaper editor raps ‘deniers of climate change’
September 02, 2026
Citing “this scorching, interminable summer,” the second-ranking official of the Vatican newspaper rebuked “deniers of climate change.”
In an article that appeared on the front page of L’Osservatore Romano’s September 1 edition, editorial secretary Gaetano Vallini began:
More frequent, persistent, and widespread. When discussing the heat, these are the words we ought to reflect upon during this scorching, interminable summer. This is especially true for those who persist in claiming that summers have always been hot. True, but heatwaves have never before been this frequent, this persistent, or spread across such vast areas.
The most stubborn deniers of climate change should be reminded of certain incontrovertible facts from 2026: the instances in Europe, even at latitudes usually only grazed by the African anticyclone, where temperature peaks were reached and sustained for periods far longer than the mere days seen in the past; the number of nights when thermometers recorded tropical temperatures; the abnormal warming of Mediterranean waters; the freezing level rising to 5,000 meters in the Alps; the prolonged drought affecting major river basins, such as the Danube; the terrifying wildfires that devastated Spain and France in particular, claiming numerous lives; and the extreme weather events driven by the increased thermal energy accumulating in the seas and atmosphere.
“Faced with such evidence, even the deniers are shifting their tactics and adopting a new narrative,” Vallini continued. “They are increasingly moving away from disputing climate change itself, focusing instead on the costs and risks of the green transition in an effort to discredit any action taken in that direction.”
“There remains a hard core of people who argue that, over the millennia, the climate has always changed due to various causes, from orbital variations to solar activity, from more intense and widespread volcanic eruptions to changes in ocean circulation,” Vallini added. “They use graphs by taking data out of context or manipulating them to suit the argument they wish to refute, downplaying the current situation.”
“And even acknowledging that similar phenomena have occurred in the past does not absolve us from asking why they are happening today, what we can do to counter their consequences, and, above all, how we can address their root causes,” Vallini commented.
The newspaper classified Vallini’s article among its international news stories, rather than among its editorials.
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