Pope Francis Promotes Environmental Projects During Angelus

For the first time during Pope Francis' Angelus, the projects of Legambiente were promoted. After the Sunday Marian prayer, this time dedicated to the theme of peace and care for the planet, Pope Francis handed the microphone to a Roman Catholic Action girl, dressed in an emerald green sweatshirt, who, not at all intimidated, read on behalf of all her peers a manifesto on the future against wars and the destruction of the earth. 'We are here to shout to the whole world our desire for peace. It seems that no one cares'. The girl continued the impeccable reading, completing the task received in which all the faithful present in St. Peter's Square and connected via TV and radio were suggested to support the projects of Legambiente and Caritas of Rome. An advertisement never seen and at least unusual for the first ecological association developed in Italy in the Seventies, very active in the green but traditionally on decidedly anti-abortionist positions. Pope Francis prays for Iran after the Isis attack. And invokes on 'all the people blessings of wisdom and peace'. Shortly before, Francis had reflected on peace and spoke of the 'idolatry of power, which generates conflicts and resorts to weapons that kill or serve economic injustice and manipulation of thought', inviting the international community to put pressure to stop the major ongoing conflicts. Starting from the humanitarian crisis in Myanmar and then Ukraine and Gaza. 'Respect the populations: I think especially of civilian victims. Listen to their cry for peace, people are tired of violence and want it to stop. War is a disaster; a defeat of humanity'. The girl who read the manifesto against war, also speaking of peace as a beautiful and lush plant and war as a dead and withered bush, received praise from Pope Francis at the end. 'Well done, you did well, he told her giving her a pat'. The little girl was part of the Peace Caravan, a tradition carried forward by Catholic Action and other diocesan realities since the times of John Paul II when the presence of two children next to the Pope, looking out the window of the Apostolic Palace, to symbolically release a dove became a custom.