While older people love to complain about “young people today,” they must admit that the younger generations are leading the way in opposing “an economic system that is unfair to the poor and an enemy of the environment,” Pope Francis wrote.
“They are not only asking us; they are doing it,” he said, pointing to a trend in choosing to consume less, to buy products “produced following strict rules of environmental and social respect” and to lower their carbon footprints with the means of transportation they use.
Pope Francis wrote about the connections between the dominate global economic system and climate change in a preface to the Italian book, “The Taste for Change: Ecological Transition as the Path to Happiness,” by the Jesuit economist Father Gaël Giraud and Carlo Petrini, the Italian founder of the International Slow Food Movement.
Vatican News published the text of the preface on 17th May, the day the book was released by the Vatican publishing house. Pope Francis wrote that the authors find hope in the younger generation, countering the tired narrative of claiming the past was better and that “those who come after us are squandering our achievements. Instead, we must admit with sincerity that it is the young people who embody the change we all objectively need.”
Picture: Pope Francis greets Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg during his general audience in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican in this file photo from 17th April 2019. In a new book, Pope Francis writes that people must learn from young people to care for the poor and for the environment. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)