Pope Francis: Destroying the Rainforest Is a Sin

Pope Francis spoke out against the destruction of the rainforest on the previous weekend, calling deforestation a “sin” and asking his fellow Catholics to respect God’s Creation.

Speaking at the University of Molise on Saturday, July 5, before an audience that included struggling farmers, Francis decried the destruction of South America’s rainforests such as the Amazon, which contains an estimated 390 billion individual trees but had the highest deforestation rate in the world as of 2005.

“This is one of the greatest challenges of our time:  to convert ourselves to a type of development that knows how to respect creation,” the pope said in unprepared remarks.  “When I look at America, also my own homeland (South America), so many forests, all cut, that have become land … that can longer give life.  This is our sin, exploiting the Earth and not allowing her to give us what she has within her.”

Pope Francis: Destroying the Rainforest Is a Sin