Booking Now: Cardinal Turkson to speak at free CAFOD lecture

Cardinal Peter Turkson, who played a key role in communicating Pope Francis' Encyclical on the environment, will deliver this year's CAFOD Pope Paul VI lecture on December 4th in London.

The Cardinal, who has been president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace since his appointment by Pope Benedict XVI in 2009 and is Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Coast, Ghana, will speak about the Church's response to climate change in an address entitled Care for Creation: how to protect and sustain our common home.

The lecture, at St Mary's Church, Marylebone, coincides with the UN climate summit - COP 21 - in Paris when world leaders will meet to agree legally binding targets to reduce carbon emissions and tackle climate change.

The event will be chaired by Dr. Anna Rowlands, Director of the Centre for Catholic Social Thought and Practice.

At a recent lecture for Trócaire, the Irish aid agency, Cardinal Turkson said: "The threats that arise from global inequality and the destruction of the environment are inter-related; and they are the greatest threats we face as a human family today.

"In responding to this combined threat, every action counts. We all have a part to play in protecting and sustaining what Pope Francis has repeatedly called our common home."

Tickets for the lecture are free although they must be booked in advance online at: www.cafod.org.uk/Events/Pope-Paul-VI-lecture

Doors open at 6.30pm and the lecture starts at 7pm. It will be followed by a drinks reception until 9pm.

As part of the Global Catholic Climate Movement, CAFOD is joining with Catholics worldwide and calling on Prime Minister David Cameron and other world leaders to take urgent action to prevent climate change pushing people deeper into poverty.

Sign the petition here: www.cafod.org.uk/Campaign/One-Climate-One-World/Climate-petition

The Pope Paul VI lecture is sponsored by: The Tablet, The Pastoral Review, Ecotricity and Triodos