Environment Day: Pope reaffirms duty to protect common home

(ANSA) - ROME, JUN 5 - Pope Francis on Monday renewed his appeal to recognize our shared responsibility to protect the planet during a meeting at the Vatican with organizers of the Green&Blue Festival in Rome and Milan to coincide with World Environment Day on June 5.
    "Experts clearly point out how the choices and actions put in place this decade will have an impact for thousands of years," said the pope.
    "Our knowledge about the impact of our actions on our Common Home and those who inhabit it, and will inhabit it, has expanded," he continued, drawing attention to the ever-more extreme natural disasters across the globe.
    Greater knowledge has brought with it a greater sense of responsibility "before God, who has entrusted us with the care of creation, before our neighbors and before future generations", the pope added, recalling that it is the "poorest and most fragile (people) who contribute the least to the phenomenon, but suffer from it the most".
    "It is necessary today for the entire international community to put as a priority the implementation of collegial, solidarity-based and forward-looking actions," recognizing "the magnitude, urgency and beauty of the challenge before us," said Francis, calling for "a decisive change in the current model of consumption and production".
    "Changing this model is 'urgent' and can no longer be postponed," he added, insisting on the need for "a culture of care" that places human dignity and the common good at the centre.
    "Let us not rob the new generations of hope in a better future," concluded Francis. (ANSA).