The UN is to hold the international climate conference in the French capital in December. Mayors confirmed their commitment to the fight against human trafficking, prostitution and black market labour. Marino, De Blasio, Madera, Hidalgo and Nicolini were among those present at today’s meeting in the Vatican
Today in the Vatican, Pope Francis met 100 or so mayors from around the world to discuss human trafficking and the protection of the environment. He thanked them for their concrete efforts in the “peripheries” of small and big cities around the globe and expressed the hope that an agreement will be reached at the UN climate change conference in Paris.
“The culture of caring for the environment,” the Pope said, is not just about having a green attitude and I say this in a positive sense. It is much more than this. Caring for the environment means having a human ecology attitude,” the Pope said. Referring to the recently published “Laudato Si’” encyclical, he underlined that it “is not a green encyclical but it is a social encyclical because mankind cannot exclude care for the environment from social life.”
The Pope then thanked he mayors gathered in the Vatican and the Argentinian chancellor of the Pontifical academies of Sciences and Social Sciences, Mgr. Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo, for the “fruitful” idea to hold this meeting in the Vatican, a meeting which forms part of a series of meetings held over the past years on the same theme. Said meetings were attended by representatives of other religions, NGOs and police force representatives. “One of the things we notice when the environment and creation are uncared for,” the Pope said, speaking in Spanish, “is that cities grow disproportionately, with ever-growing poverty and misery. Migration takes place because people leave the peripheries for the big cities, slums form because the world does not give them enough opportunities. With all respect, I think that this ideology of technocracy must be condemned. It leads to deprivation, it created unemployment so people seek new opportunities and migrate. In some countries, European countries in particular, unemployment among young people under the age of 25 reaches 40%, sometimes 50%. With what future can they look to the future? The develop dependencies and depression, they commit suicide. And the figures are not published in full. Or they commit violence in order to give meaning to their lives. And they put their health at risk.”
Out of this context arises the problem of human trafficking, “slave labour, prostitution”. The Pope thanked mayors for reflecting on these problems and mentioned the UN conference due to be held in Paris: “I have great hopes for the conference in Paris in December. I hope that the United Nations reach a fundamental accord because they really need to take a strong stand on these issues, especially on human trafficking and exploitation due to climate change,” the Pope said, recalling that his meeting with women working in the UN to combat the exploitation of children in countries afflicted by war.”
Francis concluded by quoting the theologian Romano Guardini and the concept of ignorance which can lead to human cruelty set against the concept of culture and awareness. “This meeting of mayors is important,” Francis said, “because this awareness exists in the peripheries and moves from the peripheries to the centre. It is you who have the most important job. The Holy See and the various nations can give eloquent speeches at the United Nations but if work is not done in the peripheries then there can be no change.” “I am very grateful to you for addressing these problems in the peripheries and for the cooperation among you. May the Lord give you awareness of these problems and of the destruction we cause by not caring for the environment and not having an ecological awareness. We need to transform lack of culture into culture, not culture into lack of culture.”
After his speech, the Pope did not greet mayors individually but had a group photo taken with them: He was flanked by Cardinal Claudio Hummes (a great friend of the Pope’s and an expert on the ecological problems faced by Amazonia) and the Archbishop of Agrigento (Sicily), Francesco Montenegro (who is following the immigration issue closely). Behind them, in the front row, were mayors Marino, Hidalgo, De Blasio and Carmena. Many speeches were given throughout the course of the day, starting with the testimony of two Mexican girls, Karla Jacinto and Ana Laura Perez Jaimes. One of them survived forces prostitution and the other the black labour market. Among the mayors who spoke today was the mayor of New York, Bill De Blasio who arrived slightly late because he landed in Milan instead of Rome due to weather. He criticised cities and enterprises that to do not commit to reducing carbon emissions, promising that the Big Apple would reduce these by 40 per cent by 2030.
Paris, a city that is not new to historical revolutions, will host “another revolution” in December, he said. The mayor of the French capital, Anne Hidalgo, stressed the importance of the UN conference, recalling that a thousand mayors will meet in the capital on 4 December. She reminded those present that rich countries cannot expect to give lessons to developing countries.
Madrid’s new mayor, the former lawyer Manuela Carmena, underlined amongst other things that people’s rights cannot be defended if corruption is not combatted. More specifically, prostitution cannot be stopped unless sex education improves. The neo-liberal mayor praised the Pope for acting as an “example” and for the culture of “care” espoused by the ecological encyclical. The mayor of Rome, Ignazio Marino, highlighted the organ trafficking problem, contested the possibility of it being legalised and – in view of the Pope’s visit in September – criticised US Congress about a law. The mayor of Milan, Giuliano Pisapia said that welcoming refugees is a “moral choice” that comes above political calculations and said that in Milan believers, non-believers, citizens and institutions are working together on this. The mayor of Lampedusa reminded everyone of the Pope’s visit to the island, underlining that Europe has opened its yes to the problem but it is not managing flows adequately yet. She went on to call the quota system “laughable”.
At the end of the meeting all mayors signed a document in which they promised to make a “courageous” commitment to the protection of the environment and the poor. Tomorrow a second meeting of mayors takes place at Casina Pio IV in the Vatican, co-sponsored by the UN.
