October 26, 2009. Even ecology helps bring members of the Catholic and the Orthodox Churches closer together.




The pope supports the Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I’s, fight to save the environment. He sent him a letter where he says that the credibility of Christians also depends on their responsibility to care for the creation.

Welcome, your Holiness, and welcome in the name of our Holy Father.

The patriarch responded to the letter with this applause.

With his letter the pope made his presence known at a congress organized by the patriarch on the banks of the Mississippi. Theologians, scientists, politicians and representatives from NGO’s all met in one of the areas hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Bartholomew I
Patriarch of Constantinople
"We return so that we might bear witness to the hope that is in you, the hope you have manifested through the rebuilding your lives and your community. And we are present with you to call for a renewed consciousness for environmental responsibility, and an awareness of what such a consciousness entails."

The patriarch went on to say that progress was not enough to stop nature’s fury, and he regretted that the progress being made in other areas was slow to adhere to the wisdom that should lead man to care for his planet.

TIME magazine placed Bartholomew one the list of the 100 most influential people on the planet and gave him the title of “The Green Patriarch.”

JMB/RS/GP