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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- While "creation is crying out" and millions of people suffer the effects of climate change and pollution, politicians are failing to act, Pope Leo XIV said.

As the U.N. Climate Conference, COP30, began its final week of meetings Nov. 17, the pope sent a video message to Christian representatives and activists from the global south who were holding a side event to the conference in Belem, Brazil.

The Paris Agreement adopted in 2015 at COP21 "has driven real progress and remains our strongest tool for protecting people and the planet," Pope Leo said in the video.

"But we must be honest: it is not the agreement that is failing, we are failing in our response," he said. "What is failing is the political will of some." 

While Pope Leo did not specify which nations were at fault, the U.S. government was not represented at COP30 because U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew the country from the Paris Agreement.

"True leadership means service, and support at a scale that will truly make a difference," the pope said. "Stronger climate actions will create stronger and fairer economic systems. Strong climate actions and policies -- both are an investment in a more just and stable world."

"Creation is crying out in floods, droughts, storms and relentless heat," Pope Leo said.

"One in three people live in great vulnerability because of these climate changes," he added. "To them, climate change is not a distant threat, and to ignore these people is to deny our shared humanity."

As government representatives from most of the world's countries -- more than 190 nations registered delegations -- struggled to finalize agreements on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and reducing reliance on fossil fuels, Pope Leo told the Christian activists he believed "there is still time to keep the rise in global temperature below 1.5 degrees Celsius, but the window is closing."

"As stewards of God's creation, we are called to act swiftly, with faith and prophecy, to protect the gift he entrusted to us," the pope said.

In safeguarding creation as a gift of God, he said, "we walk alongside scientists, leaders and pastors of every nation and creed."

"We are guardians of creation, not rivals for its spoils," the pope said. "Let us send a clear global signal together: nations standing in unwavering solidarity behind the Paris Agreement and behind climate cooperation."

Despite the challenges, Pope Leo told the activists, "you chose hope and action over despair, building a global community that works together."

The efforts have made a difference, he said, "but not enough. Hope and determination must be renewed, not only in words and aspirations, but also in concrete actions."
 

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has published a Cabrini Pledge card, named after St. Frances Xavier Cabrini (1850-1917), an Italian immigrant who became the United States’ first canonized saint.

The Cabrini Pledge entails seven commitments, including “to affirm, in word and deed, the inherent dignity of every person, regardless of immigration status or country of origin, seeing each as a child of God before all else,” and “to encourage civic dialogue that places the human person and the sanctity of families at the center of policymaking, especially toward the end of meaningful immigration reform.”

The prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Communication and the secretary of the Dicastery for Culture and Education discussed artificial intelligence (AI) at a conference organized by the Pontifical University of Salamanca and the International Federation of Catholic Universities.

“We must not entrust to artificial intelligence human decisions that have to do with morality and the ability to discern good from evil,” said Paolo Ruffini, the lay prefect of the Dicastery for Communication.

“No algorithm can ever replace the beauty of human encounters in the sharing of knowledge,” Ruffini added. “We must mend the rift that is growing between contemporary life and the Gospel message, between the civilization of machines, of communication, and Christian civilization.”

Bishop Paul Tighe of the Dicastery for Culture and Education warned against “blindly letting ourselves be guided” by AI results. “There is always an opinion and a direction within the algorithm.”

Addressing a UN Human Rights Council meeting on the massacre in El Fasher, Sudan, a Vatican diplomat said that “Catholic-run clinics, schools and community centers in conflict zones have either been forced to close or are operating under extreme duress.”

“Their staff, many of whom are volunteers, face daily threats, and many have been displaced,” said Archbishop Ettore Balestrero, apostolic nuncio and Permanent Observer to the United Nations and other international organizations in Geneva, Switzerland. “In order to bring an end to the current levels of violence, Sudan requires both sustained humanitarian aid and immediate diplomatic efforts.”

The Rapid Support Forces, a belligerent in the Sudanese civil war, perpetrated the massacre.

Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, the Holy See’s Secretary for Relations with States and International Organizations, delivered a lecture on November 13 in Florence on “The Nuclear Menace: New Scenarios of Risk and the Commitment of Christians.”

“The idea of ​​building peace on the threat of total destruction or on the illusion that stability can derive from a mutual possibility of annihilation” is “morally indefensible and strategically unsustainable,” said Archbishop Gallagher.

“A balance based on terror and mutual demonstrations of force,” he said, “can in no way guarantee authentic peace; on the contrary, it contributes to increasing the risk and destructive scope of a potential conflict.”

The prelate also warned of “an accelerated arms race accompanied by renewed, sometimes frenetic, efforts to expand existing arsenals and their destructive capabilities.”

Pope Leo XIV received Father Robert Dowd, CSC, the president of the University of Notre Dame since 2024, along with other leaders of the university.

“The discussion centered on the role Notre Dame and other Catholic universities can play in serving the Church, addressing the challenges of our times, and fostering human flourishing,” according to a statement issued by the university. “The Holy Father expressed gratitude for Notre Dame’s many contributions as a global Catholic research university, and he encouraged Notre Dame to continue its efforts to build bridges.”

Pope Leo XIV inaugurated the San Martino Outpatient Clinic outside St. Peter’s Basilica.

“The Pope was struck by the fact that among the doctors present, there were also psychiatrists,” said Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, prefect of the Dicastery for the Service of Charity. “Our poor also need this kind of care.”