Eight years ago, Pope Francis delivered a landmark encyclical — a letter to all bishops of the Roman Catholic Church — urging people to take better care of the planet. Now, he’s upped the ante with an even more forceful “apostolic exhortation” focused exclusively on the climate crisis.
The Vatican published a 10-page declaration from Pope Francis on Wednesday saying Western countries have dragged their feet on climate action and urging them to take much faster and far-reaching steps to tamp down rising global temperatures. Responses to the climate crisis have so far “not been adequate,” the document says, “while the world in which we live is collapsing and may be nearing the breaking point.”
In his new encyclical, titled Laudate Deum, or “praise God,” Pope Francis calls for a hastened transition to renewable energy and the…