United Kingdom: mgr. Arnold on the forthcoming apostolic exhortation, “we all must do more” for the protection of Creation

“So I think the new statement by Pope Francis will be strong and will give an urgent warning. But, as always, he will finish with that sentiment of hope and that sense that in the urgency, we’ve all got our part to play”. With these words conveyed in a release from the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, mgr. John Arnold, bishop and spokesman for the environment, takes position on Pope Francis’s publication of an apostolic exhortation on the Creation on 4th October. “In 2015 the Pope’s encyclical had warned us that it was important to take measures to save the planet but the unfortunate thing is that eight years on, several COP meetings later, we really have not been achieving the targets that those COP meetings have agreed, and the damage is not being reduced. In fact, in some ways, it’s increasing”, bishop Arnold goes on. “Some of the predictions of the environmentalists about what will be happening to the climate are proving to have been, in a way, simplified, and they’re actually accelerating faster now than those environmentalists were thinking”.“Parishes, schools, Catholic organisations. We all must do more and become a voice for our nation that says that we must change”, concludes the spokesman for the environment of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, while emphasising the importance of educating young people to take care of the Creation and begging that it be protected.
Valentina Bombelli