Climate change a moral obligation: Benedict

Australian Catholic website CathNews reports Pope Benedict is expected to tell the United Nations that action on climate change is a moral obligation.

The London Independent reports that his speech to the United Nations is likely to contain an appeal for sustainable development. Vatican diplomatic sources reveal it will follow an unprecedented Encyclical on the subject.

The speech will act as the centrepiece of a US visit scheduled for next April. It will round off an environmental blitz at the Vatican. The Pope has personally stressed green issues in the belief that climate change is affecting the poorest people on the planet.

Meanwhile the Holy Father warned yesterday that "unbridled capitalism" is widening the gap between rich and poor and threatening the planet.

Reuters reports that he used his weekly Angelus address to called for a fair distribution of wealth in the world.

He said: "The emergencies of famine and the environment demonstrate with growing clarity that the logic of profit, if predominant, increases the disproportion between the rich and the poor and leads to a ruinous exploitation of the planet."

And on Thursday, he voiced the hope that Christians and Muslims can avoid violence and intolerance by exploring their common religious values and respecting their differences.

He told visiting bishops from Benin, West Africa: "We must encourage sincere dialogue based on ever truer mutual knowledge."

This report was first published by CathNews.