In the document, published by the Holy See press office and read on Wednesday by the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, at the event, which takes place from November 11 to 22 in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, the Supreme Pontiff deplores the selfishness that weighs down this effort.

That selfish attitude “individual, national and power groups, feeds a climate of distrust and division that does not respond to the needs of an interdependent world in which we should act and live as members of a family that inhabits the same interconnected global village,” Francis said.

The Pope emphasized that this COP29 takes place “in a context conditioned by a growing disillusionment with multilateral institutions, and dangerous tendencies to build walls”, “while the preservation of creation is one of the most urgent issues of our time, closely related to the preservation of peace”.

The Bishop of Rome stressed that “society is increasingly globalizing and makes us neighbors, but it does not make us brothers”, while economic development does not reduce inequality and, on the contrary, favors the prioritization of profit and special interests “to the detriment of the protection of the weakest”.

This negative tendency contributes in an important way “to the progressive worsening of environmental problems”, the Pontiff emphasized, adding that “it is essential to seek a new international financial architecture centered on the human being, bold, creative and based on the principles of equity, justice and solidarity”.

ef/arm/mem/ort