The Time of Creation continues: Pope Francis publishes the Laudate Deum while a group of Portuguese youths challenge the European Court on Climate Change
Like every year, from 1 September to 4 October, the worldwide Christian family united in the celebration of the ‘Time of Creation’, an occasion for prayer and action to protect and care for the common home.
This year, however, it is as if ‘Creation Time’ had no end. Indeed, Pope Francis chooses 4 October to publish the Apostolic Exhortation Laudate Deum. On the climate crisis, an update of the encyclical Laudato Sì. On the care of the Common Home of 2015: ‘It is now eight years since the publication of the Encyclical Letter Laudato sì, when I wished to share with all of you, sisters and brothers of our suffering planet, my heartfelt concerns for the care of our common home. But, with the passage of time, I realise that we are not reacting enough, as the world that welcomes us is crumbling and perhaps approaching a breaking point.” Download the Apostolic Exhortation
“THERE IS NOT MUCH TIME LEFT”
Yesterday, 5 October – at the Conference organised by the Vatican Press Office and the Dicastery for Communication in the Vatican gardens with the theme: “Laudate Deum: voices and testimonies on the climate crisis – Pope Francis’ appeal was taken up and relaunched by important figures from different fields of knowledge, from Nobel Prize winner Giorgio Parisi for Physics, to Indian environmental activist Vandana Shiva, to Slow food founder Carlo Petrini, along with other environmentalists and scholars.
Image: https:cri.it
- Vandana Shiva spoke about the issue of fossil fuels, which contribute to pollution and overheating. “Caring for others and for the soil”, she reiterated, “is the best possible economy”.
- Giorgio Parisi’s opinion was clear and concerned when he pointed out that “governments do not give a damn about climate change and the voice of those who raise the alarm resembles that of someone shouting in the desert.”
- “This is one of the last opportunities to get moving. Each one of us must become an active subject”, Carlo Petrini noted.
IN PORTUGAL SET IN MOTION
A GROUP OF YOUNG PEOPLE WHO EXPERIENCED FIRST-HAND THE DEVASTATING FIRES OF 2017
Image: https:www.ehabitat.it
IN 2020 YOUNG PEOPLE
HAVE SUED 33 STATES AT THE
EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS (CEDU)
FOR CLIMATE INACTION
On 27 September 2023, the lawsuit brought by the six young Portuguese men against 32 European states for human rights violations began in Strasbourg, accused of passively witnessing the harmful effects of an overheating planet.
Photo: https:gazzettadigenova.it
This is the first climate change complaint before the European Court of Human Rights: a unique trial.
Image: www.corriere.it
ARE NOT NATURAL DISASTERS
OR ‘ANOMALOUS’ FIRES
IT IS CLIMATE CHANGE!
Martim Duarte Agostinho, now 20 years old, remembers: ‘The fires happened very close to where I live. They endangered my life, that of my sisters, as well as school days lost due to minor respiratory illnesses. Without urgent action to reduce the emissions, the place where I live will soon become an unlivable furnace’ (Source: avvenire.it).
Image: www.greenme.it/ambiente
To win the lawsuit, Cláudia Agostinho (24), Martim Agostinho (20), Mariana Agostinho (11) and Catarina Mota (23), Sofia Oliveira (18) and André Oliveira (15), would have to convince the judges that they have suffered direct damage and will have to prove that governments have a legal duty to limit the rise in global temperatures to close to 1.5 degrees as stipulated in the 2015 Paris Agreement.
“We realised how deep the impact of climate change was and is in our daily lives,” says Sofía, now 18. ‘The situation, then, gets worse by the day. – adds her cousin Catarina, now 23. ‘Last July was the hottest ever in the history of Portugal. We couldn’t do outdoor activities, sleep, concentrate’.
Image: https:meteoiglesias.altervista.org
Without drastic policies to reduce emissions and contain temperatures, ‘we cannot have a normal existence. Our bodies suffer. And our minds. We are terrified of the future. How could we not be,‘ stresses André, still 15 years old.
“Since we are talking about young people, their future is at stake: they will suffer the ravages of climate change for a much longer period of time,” said Gearóid Ó Cuinn, director of the Global Legal Action Network, who was also asked by CUDE to address the risk of inhuman and degrading treatment, due to the anguish caused by the trauma of the climate crisis and the consequent threat of the future.
Photo: avvenire.it, young people with their lawyers
WE TAKE A STAND WITH THE PORTUGUESE YOUTH
WITH THE ENERGY AND PASSION THAT COMES TO US
FROM THE CONGREGATION’S POSITION
ON INTEGRAL ECOLOGY
We network with sisters and partners in the Southern European Region on initiatives on caring for the Common Home.
