Climate Change

Pope Francis and U.S. President Joe Biden had an unusually long meeting at the Vatican Oct. 29, talking about the climate crisis and poverty, but not about abortion, the president said.

Even though Pope Francis will not attend the 26th U.N. Climate Change Conference in Glasgow in person, the Vatican delegation and the Catholic Church will be “everywhere” during the two-week summit Oct. 31-Nov. 12.

President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden will have an audience with Pope Francis Oct. 29, the day before the G20 Leaders’ Summit starts in Rome, White House press secretary Jen Psaki announced Oct. 14.

Addressing the gathering, the pope urged religious believers to remember a key lesson of the pandemic, “namely, that we cannot remain healthy in a world that is sick.”

The Vatican said the conversations focused on “matters of mutual interest in the international and regional spheres, agreeing on the advisability of relaunching cooperation to address the multiple crises underway, with particular reference to the consequences of the health emergency and migration.”

Pope Francis along with other high-level representatives of the world’s religions came together in a joint commitment to caring for the Earth and to appeal to world leaders to deepen their commitments to mitigating climate change.

Dozens of leaders from the major faiths present in the United Kingdom urged government leaders to take urgent action to address climate change and promised their congregations would do likewise.

The march took place just a day after the Senate parliamentarian nixed Democrats’ plan to include immigration reform in the budget reconciliation bill process.