EarthBeat Weekly: Franciscan ties bring UN chief to Siena College with powerful climate message
EarthBeat Weekly: Franciscan ties bring UN chief to Siena College with powerful climate message
Franciscan ties bring UN chief's dire climate message to Siena CollegeEarthBeat Weekly October 11, 2024
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres says "our world is in trouble" due to climate change in a video message at Siena College's symposium on integral ecology Oct. 10. (Courtesy of Siena College)
The head of the United Nations made an appearance this week at the campus of Siena College, the Franciscan school in upstate New York. While not physically present (he was in Laos), António Guterres, the ninth U.N. secretary-general, appeared via video message Thursday evening at the Catholic college's two-day symposium on integral ecology, where climate change and justice were front and center, both in the panels and in Guterres' ominous message. "Today, floods and droughts are fueling instability, driving conflict and forcing people from their homes," he said. "And though climate chaos is everywhere, it doesn't affect everyone equally. The very people most at risk are those who did the least to cause the crisis: small island states, developing countries, the poor and the vulnerable. This is breathtaking injustice, and it is just the beginning." Guterres offered his assessment of the state of global environmental issues — "our world is in trouble" — and made pleas for nations to ramp up actions to substantially slash greenhouse gas emissions to achieve the Paris Agreement goal of limiting temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit). He also pressed developed nations like the U.S. to fulfill financing pledges to help other nations mitigate climate change and adapt to and recover from its impacts today. The themes were similar to past speeches by Guterres on the dire situation climate change presents the planet, but what made this talk unique is how he connected it to Catholic and Franciscan values, particularly the 13th-century Italian saint's pursuit of peace and closeness with the poor and vulnerable. Of the intensifying heatwaves, droughts, floods and extreme storms — "All this puts peace and justice in peril, as St Francis would have understood," he said. And the U.N. leader freely quoted Pope Francis, whether the pope's warnings about exploiting creation in Laudato Si', or humanity's role as custodians not masters of creation, to endorsing his call for everyone to hear the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor. It was Franciscan ties that led Guterres to Siena in the first place. Br. Michael Perry, former head of the global Franciscan order, is now director of the college's Laudato Si' Center for Integral Ecology, and was part of the group who approached Guterres about partaking in the symposium. As it turns out, Guterres has a personal fondness for Franciscan values, as a Franciscan priest and friend presided at both his wedding ceremonies, his children's baptisms and family Masses at his home. "And as an António from Lisbon, I have a strong connection with Santo António, one of the first Franciscans," he told the Siena audience. Read more: Climate change puts peace, justice in peril, UN chief tells Franciscan college
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