Ratzinger, more concerned about the Ozone layer, than salvation of souls announces his pledge to protect the Ozone Layer

Holy See's Commitment to Protecting Ozone Layer


VATICAN CITY, MAY 6, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Here is the declaration attached to the Instrument of Accession to the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer, to the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, and to its four amendments, deposited by Archbishop Celestino Migliore, the Holy See's permanent observer to the United Nations.

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In acceding to the Vienna Convention on the Protection of the Ozone Layer and the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, as well as its four Amendments: London (1990), Copenhagen (1992), Montreal (1997) and Beijing (1999), the Holy See desires to encourage the entire International Community to be resolute in promoting authentic cooperation between politics, science and economics. Such cooperation, as has been shown in the case of the ozone regime, can achieve important outcomes, which make it simultaneously possible to safeguard creation, to promote integral human development and to care for the common good, in a spirit of responsible solidarity and with profound positive repercussions for present and future generations.

In conformity with its own nature and with the particular character of Vatican City State, the Holy See, by means of the solemn act of accession, intends to give its own moral support to the commitment of States to the correct and effective implementation of the Treaties in question and to the attaining of the mentioned objectives. To this end, it expresses the wish that by recognizing "the signs of [an economic growth] that has not always been able to protect the delicate balances of nature" (Pope Benedict XVI, 2 September 2007), all actors will intensify the aforesaid cooperation and strengthen "the alliance between man and the environment, which must mirror the creative love of God, from whom we come and to whom we are bound" (Benedict XVI, 16 September 2007).

From the Vatican, 9 April 2008