The Vatican has a history of promoting ecological issues under Pope Francis, who has made it a key point of his pontificate.
VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — The Vatican is once again turning off its lights to participate in the World Wildlife Fund’s Earth Hour on Saturday, citing ecological concerns.
In a brief press note issued Friday night, the office of St. Peter's Basilica noted its participation in the annual event. As such, the light on the dome of St. Peter's Basilica will be switched off for an hour at 8:30 pm Saturday, to join in the worldwide initiative.
The note added:
In his encyclical Laudato si', Pope Francis reminds us that the ecological issue must be centered on ethics and social justice, and that what is happening to the earth, “our common home, is an unprecedented challenge that affects our responsibility to others and to future generations."
The Vatican has taken part in the annual ecological virtue signaling event since at least 2009. “Earth Hour” is organized by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and began in 2007 in Australia when more than 2.2 million people turned off their lights to express their shared concern for “climate change.”
Announcing the 2025 event, the WWF stated it is a time when “millions of people around the world come together for one hour to show they care about the future of our planet. From iconic landmarks like Big Ben and the Sydney Opera House to cities across the globe, the lights go out in a stunning display of solidarity for our natural world."
"Our world needs our help," wrote the WWF. "Nature gives us so much, from the food we eat to the air we breathe; it keeps us healthy and thriving. WWF’s Earth Hour is the perfect moment to switch off and give back to the planet. Because when we restore nature, it restores us."
The Earth Hour organization added that their event is intended to raise awareness of the climate goals set in the Paris Climate Agreement of 2015:
"we are now at a tipping point with our climate and nature crises, putting at risk the fate of our one home and all our futures. We are on course to breach by 2030 the 1.5°C global temperature increase limit set by the Paris Climate Agreement, and nature - the source of our very livelihoods and one of our biggest allies against the climate crisis - is also under severe threat, facing alarming and unprecedented rates of loss globally."
Their endeavor, the group writes, is to further this ecological aim:
So, how can you contribute? Earth Hour is calling on individuals, communities, and businesses across the world to switch off their lights and Give an hour for Earth, spending 60 minutes doing something - anything - positive for our planet.
Pope Francis has made “climate change” a key aspect of his 11-year pontificate, in his official writings, speeches, and interventions. In what was set to be the culmination of all of his “climate change” activism, Francis was due to attend the COP28 climate conference in Dubai in late 2023. However, due to ill health, he had to cancel the trip less than two days before he was intended to leave.
Shortly before that cancelled trip, Francis released a follow up to Laudato Si’ – the apostolic exhoration Laudate Deum – in which he issued stark calls for “obligatory” measures across the globe to address the issue of “climate change.”
“It is no longer possible to doubt the human – ‘anthropic’ – origin of climate change,” wrote the pontiff, before later calling for mandatory alignment with green policies:
If there is sincere interest in making COP28 a historic event that honors and ennobles us as human beings, then one can only hope for binding forms of energy transition that meet three conditions: that they be efficient, obligatory and readily monitored.
READ: Pope Francis calls for obligatory global ‘climate change’ policies in new document ‘Laudate Deum’
The pope’s personal commitment to the “climate change” agenda is well documented, and has emerged as one of the central themes of his ten-year reign. His continued promotion of the pro-abortion Paris Agreement, which underpins the majority of the current “climate change” agenda, comes despite the agreement’s fundamentally pro-abortion principles which connect to the stated U.N. goal of creating a universal “right” to abortion in line with Goal No. 5.6 of the organization’s Sustainable Development Goals.
READ: Pope Francis calls for an ‘end’ to ‘the era of fossil fuel’ in Prayer for Creation message
Francis has also gone as far as to sign the Vatican up to the principles of the agreement in 2022. Laudato Si’ led to the birth of a global movement that links “climate change” activism to the pope’s words. The Laudato Si’ Movement issues calls to divest from fossil fuels, and aims to “turn Pope Francis’ encyclical letter Laudato Si’ into action for climate and ecological justice.”
This story is developing...
