Holy See Joins International Ozone Treaties

The Holy See joined its voice to international treaties aiming to protect the ozone layer. Archbishop Celestino Migliore, Apostolic Nuncio, Permanent Observer of the Holy See, deposited the Instrument of Accession to the "Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer"; to the "Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer" and to its four Amendments and accepted the church’s assent to the declaration on 5 May 2008, at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. Keeping in mind the four Amendments of London (1990), Copenhagen (1992), Montreal (1997) and Beijing (1999), the Holy See, declared the Archbishop, desires to encourage the entire International Community to be resolute in promoting authentic cooperation between politics, science and economics. Such cooperation, as has been shown in the case of the ozone regime, can achieve important outcomes, which make it simultaneously possible to safeguard creation, to promote integral human development and to care for the common good, in a spirit of responsible solidarity and with profound positive repercussions for present and future generations, he said. The Holy See expressed its intention to "give its own moral support to the commitment of states to the correct and effective implementation of the treaties in question and to the attaining of the mentioned objectives." Citing two messages from Benedict XVI, both from last September, the Archbishop concluded, expressing "the wish that by recognizing 'the signs of an economic growth that has not always been able to protect the delicate balances of nature,' all actors will intensify the aforesaid cooperation and strengthen 'the alliance between man and the environment, which must mirror the creative love of God, from whom we come and to whom we are bound.'"