Earlier this month, before a modest audience at a Catholic university in Ireland, Cardinal Peter Turkson delivered a lengthy address on the importance of caring for the environment, which he described as inseparable from caring for the poor. This will be, Turkson told the students, a “critical year for humanity,” culminating in the international conference on climate change in December. “Compelled by the scientific evidence for climate change,” Turkson said, “we are called to care for humanity and to respect the grammar of nature as virtues in their own right.”
Vatican-watchers have plenty to feast on these days, but Turkson’s words still caused a stir, because they offer a window onto the Pope’s plans to urge action on climate change. A native of Ghana, Turkson was a favorite for the papacy when Benedict stepped down in 2013, and now he presides over the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. But what really matters is this: Turkson has played a crucial role in drafting a major environmental document, which will pay special attention to climate change, that Pope Francis plans to publish this summer. The document, known as an encyclical, underwent a final review at the end of March, and will soon be translated and made public. So Turkson’s 50-minute address, which constantly cited the Pope’s views, serves as a curtain-raiser, pointing toward Francis’s intention to focus on the links between poverty and the environment as he strides into the climate wars. “The threats that arise from global inequality and the destruction of the environment are inter-related,” Turkson said, “and they are the greatest threats we face as a human family today.”
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