United Nations Address Prompts Pope To Preach About Environment

Pope Francis continued in his politically-charged vein during his visit to the United Nations Friday, reports USA Today. Embellishing and adding to the themes he’s touted since his historic U.S. visit began earlier this week, the Pope addressed the United Nations during it’s 70th anniversary celebration year. Francis is the 5th Pope to address the United Nations, and he used his opportunity in front of world leaders to talk a little bit more about the environment.

“We human beings are part of the environment. We live in communion with it, since the environment itself entails ethical limits which human activity must acknowledge and respect…. Any harm done to the environment, therefore, is harm done to humanity.”

The Pope, speaking in his native Spanish, also touched on environmental concerns, including climate change, during his address to the U.S. Congress on Thursday. While his United Nations address primarily focused on the environment, when Francis addressed congress spoke largely about unity, addressing immigration and poverty with compassion and protecting all human life, even that still in the womb.

Francis touched somewhat upon the history of the United Nations in his speech, stating that the United Nations was formed in a post-WWII world where mankind found itself dealing with technology that could “create atrocities” if used by the wrong hands or for the wrong purposes. He went on to insist that one of the fundamental reasons for the existence of the United Nations is to protect nature, which in turn protects humanity’s continued existence.

“He is not authorized to abuse it [nature], much less to destroy it.”

The Pope also the United Nations General Assembly that in his opinion, nuclear weapons are among the greatest “scourge” on Earth and openly advocated their complete elimination from the world stage. He stated that he’d like to see a world where nukes are totally prohibited, and even praised the controversial Iran nuclear agreement. In his address to the United Nations, he added that he hoped the deal would last through mutual diplomacy and cooperation.

No stranger to controversy himself, Francis also touched on poverty and issues related to wealth inequality the world over. The Pontiff has long advocated what some see as the redistribution of wealth. Prior to his United Nations address, Francis visited Washington D.C. area homeless shelters, reports ABC News. These visits prompted him to include “We can find no social or moral justification, no justification whatsoever, for lack of housing,” to comments he made Thursday at St. Patrick’s Church.

He continued in much the same tone during his United Nation’s address, pointing the finger at “selfish and boundless thirst for power and material” for the destruction of the environment.

The “people’s Pope” has built quite a reputation for himself as an advocate for the poor, eschewing the traditional pomp of a papal visit and keeping his historic U.S. trip as low-key as possible. On Thursday, Francis opted out of lunch with the who’s who of the Washington elite and instead chose to bless a meal for some of Washington D.C.’s homeless instead, The Huffington Post reported. This lunch with some of the most disenfranchised in the U.S. took place less than 24-hours before his United Nation’s speech.

Pope: We must build unity on the basis of our diversity of languages, cultures and religions http://t.co/zXHTouITku pic.twitter.com/pXBBShAGIK

— Daily Mail US (@DailyMail) September 25, 2015

While addressing the United Nations, the Pope also called for more tolerance and better cooperation among different religious and ethnic groups. He spoke out about the persecution of Christians in the Middle East and Northern Africa, where deadly struggles with ISIS have become a way of life.

“I must appeal to you regarding the painful situation in the entire Middle East and North Africa where Christians and even members of the majority religion have been forced to witness the destruction of their places of worship, places of cultural heritage.”

While today’s speech to the United Nations did include language about countries and future generations not turning their backs on the their less-privileged neighbors, one specific topic was glaringly missing from the Pope’s address. Not once in his words to the United Nations did he mention the worst migrant crisis since WWII, which is currently underway in Europe. European United Nations countries are currently struggling to find permanent resettlement locations for an estimated 350,000 Syrian refugees. The crisis is stretching the resources and diplomacy of member nations of the United Nations to the breaking point.

[Image Courtesy: Bryan Thomas/Getty Images]