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Vatican City, Nov 28, 2016 / 04:30 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis told a group of scientists Monday that their role in finding creative solutions to the world’s problems is more urgent than ever, and praised increasing collaboration between scientific and religious communities.

“It falls to scientists, who work free of political, economic or ideological interests, to develop a cultural model which can face the crisis of climatic change and its social consequences, so that the vast potential of productivity will not be reserved only for the few,” the Pope said Nov. 28.

Just as the scientific community has carried out research demonstrating the planet’s current crisis through interdisciplinary exchange, “so too today that same community is called to offer a leadership that provides general and specific solutions” to increasing issues such as water, renewable forms of energy and food security, he said.

Francis stressed that with the cooperation of scientists, the creation of “a normative system” that includes “inviolable limits and ensures the protection of ecosystems” is now necessary.  

This must be done, he said, “before the new forms of power deriving from the techno-economic model causes irreversible harm not only to the environment, but also to our societies, to democracy, to justice and freedom.”

With these things in mind, the Pope noted that so far politics in the international sphere “has reacted weakly,” save for a few exceptions.

The “concrete will” to pursue the common good leaves something to be desired, while “well-founded scientific opinion” about the state of the planet is disregarded with “ease,” he said.

Evidence that politics has been submitted “to a technology and an economy which seek profit above all else,” he said, is made visible by the “distraction, or delay in implementing global agreements on the environment.”

Another sign Francis pointed to are “the continued wars of domination camouflaged by righteous claims,” which in the end “inflict ever greater harm on the environment and the moral and cultural richness of peoples.” However, he noted that despite the various challenges, progress has been made.

Pope Francis spoke to members of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, headed by Bishop Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo, gathered in Rome for their Nov. 25-29 plenary session titled “Science and Sustainability: Impacts of Scientific Knowledge and Technology on Human Society and its Environment.”

Members include scientists from around the world, regardless of their religious affiliation. Among those present at this week’s conference include renowned British scientist and self-proclaimed atheist Stephen Hawking.

Hawking, who has been a member of the Academy since 1986, spoke to the plenary Nov. 25 on “The Origin of the Universe.” In addition to Francis, he has also met Pope’s Paul VI, John Paul II and Benedict XVI, all of whom praised his invaluable contribution to science.

In his speech to the plenary, Pope Francis spoke on themes promoted throughout his 2015 environmental encyclical “Laudato Si,” insisting that never before has there been such a distinct need “for science to be at the service of a new global ecological equilibrium.”

At the same time, he noted how a renewed partnership is being seen between science and Christian communities, “who are witnessing the convergence of their distinct approaches to reality in the shared goal of protecting our common home, threatened as it is by ecological collapse and consequent increase of poverty and social exclusion.”

This joint-commitment, he said, is all the more admirable when aimed at promoting justice, peace, human dignity, freedom and an integral human development.
 
Francis said that many in the modern world have grown up believing themselves to be “owners and masters of nature,” able to “plunder it” at will without considering the importance of development or the potential of creation.

By “subjecting inanimate matter to our whims,” we face consequences such as the “grave loss to biodiversity, among other ills.”

He stressed that as guardians of creation, “we are not custodians of a museum or of its major artefacts to be dusted each day,” but rather “co-operators in protecting and developing the life and biodiversity of the planet and of human life present there.”

Pope Francis pointed to the need for “an ecological conversion” that is capable of both “supporting and promoting sustainable development.” This conversion, he said, requires that we assume our full human responsibilities toward creation, and that we seek “social justice and the overcoming of an immoral system that produces misery, inequality and exclusion.”

Despite the many challenges that might impede these efforts, the Pope noted that there are also many “encouraging signs” that humanity “wants to respond, to choose the common good, and regenerate itself with responsibility and solidarity.”

“Combined with moral values, the plan for sustainable and integral development is well positioned to offer all scientists, in particular those who profess belief, a powerful impetus for research,” he said.

Francis closed his speech by extending his “best wishes” to those present for their work, and offered his blessing to them and their families, asking for prayers.

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Vatican City, Nov 28, 2016 / 05:31 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Monday the Vatican announced that Pope Francis has named Bishop Gregory Parkes of Pensacola-Tallahassee as the new head of the St. Petersburg diocese, where he will take over as their fifth bishop.

“I am filled with joy that Pope Francis has appointed Bishop Parkes as the new Bishop of the Diocese of St. Petersburg,” the diocese’s outgoing bishop, Bishop Robert Lynch, said in a Nov. 28 press release announcing Parkes’ appointment.

He invited faithful in both St. Petersburg and in Pensacola-Tallahassee to join him “in offering prayers of thanksgiving and to pray for Bishop Parkes as he transitions to shepherd the people of the Diocese of St. Petersburg.”

Bishop Lynch, who has served the Diocese of St. Petersburg since 1996, will retire after having reached the age limit of 75.

The appointment of Bishop Parkes as his successor will officially be made at a Nov. 28 news conference in St. Petersburg, during which the new bishop will be introduced.  

Born April 2, 1964, in Mineola, N.Y., Parkes spent his school years in Massapequa before moving onto Daytona Beach Community College, where he studied briefly before earning a bachelor’s degree in finance from Florida State University.

He worked in banking in Tampa for several years before entering St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary in Boynton Beach, where he studied from 1993-1996. He then transferred to Rome’s Pontifical North American College, where he remained until 2000.

In addition to his finance degree, Parkes also holds a Sacred Theology degree and a degree in Canon Law from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.

Parkes was ordained a priest for the diocese of Orlando June 26, 1999, and has a brother, Fr. Stephen Parkes, who is also a priest and still serves in the diocese of Orlando.

After his ordination, Bishop Parkes went on to serve in various capacities, including as parochial vicar of Holy Family Catholic Church in Orlando from 2000-2004, and as parochial administrator and pastor of Corpus Christi Catholic Church in Celebration from 2005-2012.

He also served as Vicar General and Chancellor for Canonical Affairs in Orlando, as well as pastor of Corpus Christi Parish in Celebration before his 2012 appointment as the fifth bishop of Pensacola-Tallahassee.

In addition to English, the bishop also speaks Spanish and Italian.

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(Vatican Radio) People in Switzerland voting in a referendum have rejected a proposal to accelerate the country’s exit from nuclear energy with a strict timetable. Official results showed more than half of the voters, some 54 percent, voted against the initiative.

Listen to Stephan Bos' report:

The outcome of Sunday's referendum on nuclear energy energy came as a setback for Switzerland's Green Party. A yes vote would have limited the reactors lifespan to 45 years. That would have meant the closure of three of the alpine nation's five nuclear plants next year, with the last shutting in 2029.

However after the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan, the Swiss government only adopted a gradualist approach toward transitioning the country to renewable energy by 2050.

It said nuclear plants should continue to operate as long as they are deemed safe. But it refused to set a precise timetable as demanded by the Greens.

NEEDING TIME

The government said it "needs time" to switch to other sources such as wind, solar and biomass energy. And official results showed that most voters backed that argument. Only six of Switzerland’s 26 states supported the nuclear shutdown plan.

The five plants currently generate almost 40 percent of the country's electricity.

Under Switzerland’s direct democracy system, proposals need support from both a majority of the country’s cantons, or states, and of the national vote to pass.

While environmentalists have expressed concern about nuclear energy, business leaders and the government say shutting plants down too quickly could lead to power shortages and raise reliance on fossil fuels.
 

 

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