{"id":6226,"date":"2015-09-24T01:58:13","date_gmt":"2015-09-24T01:58:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=6226"},"modified":"2015-09-24T01:58:13","modified_gmt":"2015-09-24T01:58:13","slug":"climate-change-problem-can-no-longer-be-left-to-a-future-generation-pope-francis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=6226","title":{"rendered":"Climate change problem can no longer be left to a future generation – Pope Francis"},"content":{"rendered":"

In his first public address during his visit to the United States, Pope Francis spent the majority of his time harping on one issue: Climate change.
\nSpeaking before a massive crowd outside the White House Wednesday morning, Pope Francis began his talk by referencing his immigrant heritage, noting, \u201cAs the son of an immigrant family, I am happy to be a guest in this country, which was largely built by such families.\u201d He then offered an aside praising the merits of religious liberty, asking the U.S. government to pay heed to the beliefs of American Catholics and \u201crespect their deepest concerns and their right to religious liberty.\u201d
\nBut just three paragraphs into his prepared remarks, Francis pivoted sharply to the another issue near to his heart \u2014 the environment.
\nIt seems clear to me also that climate change is a problem which can no longer be left to a future generation.
\n\u201cMr. President, I find it encouraging that you are proposing an initiative for reducing air pollution,\u201d Francis said. \u201cAccepting the urgency, it seems clear to me also that climate change is a problem which can no longer be left to a future generation.\u201d
\nFrancis twice quoted his own encyclical on the environment, a papal document released earlier this year that made headlines because of its bold call for global action on climate change.
\n\u201cWhen it comes to the care of our \u2018common home\u2019, we are living at a critical moment of history,\u201d he said. \u201cWe still have time to make the changes needed to bring about \u2018a sustainable and integral development, for we know that things can change.\u2019 Such change demands on our part a serious and responsible recognition not only of the kind of world we may be leaving to our children, but also to the millions of people living under a system which has overlooked them. Our common home has been part of this group of the excluded which cries out to heaven and which today powerfully strikes our homes, our cities and our societies.\u201d
\n\u201cTo use a telling phrase of the Reverend Martin Luther King, we can say that we have defaulted on a promissory note and now is the time to honor it,\u201d Francis added, quoting the famous civil rights leader\u2019s \u201cI Have A Dream\u201d speech. \u201cWe know by faith that \u2018the Creator does not abandon us; he never forsakes his loving plan or repents of having created us. Humanity still has the ability to work together in building our common home\u2019. As Christians inspired by this certainty, we wish to commit ourselves to the conscious and responsible care of our common home.\u201d
\nPresident Barack Obama, who spoke before Francis, praised the pontiff\u2019s environmentalism.
\n\u201cHoly Father, you remind us that we have a sacred obligation to protect our planet \u2014 God\u2019s magnificent gift to us,\u201d Obama said. \u201cWe support your call to all world leaders to support the communities most vulnerable to a changing climate and to come together to preserve our precious world for future generations.\u201d
\nFrancis\u2019 rhetoric isn\u2019t inspiring everyone, however. At least one Catholic Republican \u2014 Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) \u2014 is boycotting the pope\u2019s speech to Congress on Thursday because he disagrees with the Holy Father\u2019s stance on climate change<\/p>\n

Source: http:\/\/thinkprogress.org\/\"pope<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In his first public address during his visit to the United States, Pope Francis spent the majority of his time harping on one issue: Climate change. Speaking before a massive crowd outside the White House Wednesday morning, Pope Francis began his talk by referencing his immigrant heritage, noting, \u201cAs the son of an immigrant family, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6227,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[23],"tags":[45,827,28],"class_list":["post-6226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-news","tag-climate-change","tag-papal-visit","tag-pope-francis"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/pope-frances.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4oswh-1Cq","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6226"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6226\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6228,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6226\/revisions\/6228"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}