Pope Francis on Thursday afternoon spoke about the importance of safeguarding the environment and ensuring a just distribution of the earth’s wealth as he address directors and staff of the United Nations Offices in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.
The Pope said Africa offers the world a beauty and natural richness which inspire praise of the Creator. This patrimony of Africa and of all mankind, he said “is constantly exposed to the risk of destruction caused by human selfishness of every type and by the abuse of situations of poverty and exclusion”.
In the context of economic relationships between States and between peoples, he continued “we cannot be silent about forms of illegal trafficking which arise in situations of poverty and in turn lead to greater poverty and exclusion. Illegal trade in diamonds and precious stones, rare metals or those of great strategic value, wood, biological material and animal products, such as ivory trafficking and the relative killing of elephants, fuels political instability, organized crime and terrorism”. This situation, Pope Francis said, “is a cry rising up from humanity and the earth itself, one which needs to be heard by the international community”…
