COP16: Nuncio in Colombia points out that the climate crisis is a consequence of the desire to “always have more”

Mons. Paolo Rudelli, Apostolic Nuncio in Colombia, referred to the COP16 event taking place in Cali to indicate that the damage caused to the planet and to coexistence between peoples originates when at the center is only economic interest and the desire to always have more.

Until November 1, Cali, capital of the department of Valle del Cauca, is hosting the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP16), with the motto “Peace with nature” and with the participation of representatives from 170 countries and institutions.

The Holy See is not part of the member states of the UN, so it does not make decisions about the Convention on Biological Diversity, but it has had the status of observer state since 1964, which allows it to give its considerations to the issues discussed. .

In that sense, the Episcopal Conference of Colombia reported that Bishop Rudelli “will participate in various spaces of this important global reflection under the central purpose of echoing the contributions of the Catholic Church, especially the calls of Pope Francis, in the face of the urgency of integral ecology”.

In a video published on the CEC’s YouTube account, the Italian prelate also highlighted that during these days the Catholic Church is present with social pastoral care and other instances “to testify how important COP16 is for us.”

It is important because the common home is “a reflection of the intelligence, of the beauty of God, and if we do not take care of that plan of God, in the end we will end the planet and we will end the human species as well,” he indicated.

“The COP is a meeting between governments that negotiate based on budgets, based on financing and all that, but the voice of the Saint is a voice that wants to call out the values ​​that are at the bottom of that convention.”

The archbishop said that in his encyclical Praised yes Pope Francis has shown that it is not only about taking care of nature, because the crisis is not only ecological, “but it is a crisis of the economic system, it is an anthropological crisis, it is a spiritual crisis.”

“That is to say, when man places only economic development at the center of his interest, only always having more, always consuming more, we are not only destroying the planet, we are destroying our coexistence, we are seeing this now with wars” , he pointed out.

Regarding the climate aspect, Bishop Rudelli called on the authorities to establish policies to protect biodiversity, because although the work carried out by NGOs, the Catholic Church and other Christian confessions is important, “results cannot be achieved.” if there is not also a State policy.”

That is to say, he pointed out, it is necessary that “the community, as a whole, takes responsibility for the protection of biodiversity and for the care of the Common Home.”