Bishops from Asia, Africa, Latin America appeal for ecological conversion

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Source: Vatican Media

Bishops' conferences and councils from Asia, Africa and Latin America (SECAM, CELAM and FABC) and the Pontifical Commission for Latin America have published a document calling for climate justice and ecological conversion, ahead of the UN climate change conference, COP30, which takes place in November in Belém, Brazil, from November 10 to 21, 2025.

Titled 'A call for climate justice and the common home: ecological conversion, transformation and resistance to false solutions', the document was presented at a press conference on Tuesday at the Holy See Press Office. Earlier in the day it was also given to Pope Leo XIV.

The document reiterates the Church's commitment to climate justice and calls nations and governments to action, inspired by the Pontiff's call to promote an integral ecology, and in line with Francis' encyclical Laudato Si', which this year celebrates its 10th anniversary.

"Our message today is not diplomatic; it is eminently pastoral. It is a call to conscience in the face of a system that threatens to devour creation, as if the planet were just another commodity," said Cardinal Filipe Neri Ferrão, Archbishop of Goa and Damao in India, and President of the Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences (FABC). Alongside him at the press conference were Cardinal Jaime Spengler, Archbishop of Porto Alegre (Brazil), President of the Brazilian bishops' conference (CNBB) and the Latin American and Caribbean Episcopal Council (CELAM); Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu, Archbishop of Kinshasa (Democratic Republic of Congo) and President of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM); and Emlice Cuda, secretary of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America.

"As missionary apostles of an outgoing synodal Church, we will go to COP30 to build peace in the midst of this war in pieces against creation, where many are dying and will die even more if we do not act now," Cuda said. "We do so because, as Pope Leo XIV says, the Church 'always seeks to be close, especially to those who suffer'".

"I am raising a voice that is not mine alone, but that of the Amazonian peoples, of the martyrs of the land - we could say of the climate -, and of the riverside, indigenous, Afro-descendant, peasant and urban communities", Cardinal Spengler said. "There is an urgent need to become aware of the need for changes in lifestyle, production and consumption". He denounced the "masking" of economic interests under names such as "green capitalism" or "transition economy" or the opening of new oil wells in the Amazon and emphasized the Church rejects mechanisms such as the "financialization of nature"

Cardinal Ambongo spoke "in the name of the Churches of the African continent," which has been "impoverished by centuries of extractivism, slavery and exploitation." He highlighted how the race to exploit minerals is at the "origin of the proliferation of armed groups" and called for "an economy that is not based on the sacrifice of African populations to enrich others..... Africa wants to contribute to a future of justice and peace for all mankind," he said. "We say enough is enough, enough of false solutions, enough of decisions taken without listening to those on the front line of climate collapse."

From the point of view of the Asian continent, Cardinal Ferrao explained that "millions of people are already living the devastating effects of climate change: typhoons, forced migration, loss of islands, pollution of rivers" while "false solutions are advancing: mega infrastructures, displacement for "clean" energy that does not respect human dignity, and soulless mining in the name of green batteries".

"Rich countries ought to recognise and pay their ecological debt, without continuing to indebt the Global South," he said, adding that the Church wants to promote alternatives such as "educational programmes," "new economic pathways" or the "accompaniment of women and girls" who are often most affected.

Taking the floor spontaneously, Cardinal Michael Czerny emphasized the document's connection to Pope Francis's legacy: "Ten years ago, I wonder if there is anyone who could have imagined this press conference as a fulfillment and implementation of Laudato si'. This is an extraordinary expression of what Pope Francis has called for and what Pope Leo is continuing to underline and call. I am grateful," he said.

LINKS

Watch Cardinal Filipe Neri Ferrão present the document: www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-Jhpzb5C4U

Read the document: www.sjesjesuits.global/2025/07/02/a-call-for-climate-justice-and-the-common-home/