MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS TO HIS HOLINESS BARTHOLOMEW I ON THE OCCASION OF THE INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM “TOWARD A GREENER ATTICA: PRESERVING THE PLANET AND PROTECTING ITS PEOPLE”
Athens
[…]
I recall vividly my visit to Lesvos, together with Your Holiness and His Beatitude
Hieronymos II, to express our common concern for the plight of the migrants and
refugees there. While enchanted by the scenery of the blue sky and sea, I was struck
by the thought that such a beautiful sea had become a tomb for men, women and
children who had for the most part sought only to escape inhumane conditions in
their own homelands. There I was able to witness for myself the generosity of the
Greek people, so richly imbued with human and Christian values, and their efforts,
despite the effects of their own economic crisis, to comfort those who, dispossessed
of all material goods, had made their way to their shores.
The dramatic contradictions I experienced during my visit help us to understand the
importance of the present symposium’s theme. It is not just the homes of vulnerable
people around the world that are crumbling, as can be seen in the world’s growing
exodus of climate migrants and environmental refugees. As I sought to point out in
my Encyclical Laudato Si’, we may well be condemning future generations to a
common home left in ruins. Today we must honestly ask ourselves a basic question:
“What kind of world do we want to leave to those who come after us, to children who
are now growing up?” (ibid., 160). In the wake of the ecological crisis we ought to
undertake a serious examination of conscience regarding the protection of the planet
entrusted to our care (cf. Gen2:15). […]
