Pope Francis Appears At The Window In St. Peter's Square.
Newly elected Pope Francis appears at the window of his future private apartment to bless the faithful, gathered below in St. Peter's Square, during the Sunday Angelus prayer at the Vatican REUTERS

Pope Francis is set expected to influence Catholics on acting on climate change. The Roman Catholic leader is reportedly personally lobbying political and religious leaders at the U.N. General Assembly in New York in 2015 to commit to taking decisive action for the environment.

The Guardian reports that the pope will be issuing a lengthy message regarding the climate in a bid to influence the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics. He will be delivering the message to the U.N. assembly in Paris, and will call a summit of the main religions of the world.

The pope’s stance on the environment is clear from the start, but it will be the first time he will be sending an edict to the faith’s 5,000 bishops and 400,000 priests for distribution to their parishioners. He will publish a rare encyclical on climate change and human ecology after visiting the Philippines in March.

Vatican insiders told the paper that Pope Francis will meet with other religious leaders and lobby politicians at the general assembly in New York in September when they will sign up to new goals tackling anti-poverty and environmental issues.

“Our academics supported the pope’s initiative to influence next year’s crucial decisions,” Bishop Marcelo Sorondo, the chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences in Vatican, told Cafod. He explained that the pope wishes to directly influence the U.N. climate meeting in Paris. “The idea is to convene a meeting with the leaders of the main religions to make all people aware of the state of our climate and the tragedy of social exclusion.”

The pope’s encyclical is also expected to attract criticisms from Vatican conservatives and climate change deniers.

“There will always be 5-10 percent of people who will take offence,” Director of the Catholic climate covenant Dan Misleh told the Guardian, calling the papal encyclical “rare.” “They are very vocal and have political clout. This encyclical will threaten some people and bring joy to others. The arguments are around economics and science rather than morality.”

He predicted that there will also be Catholics who will be discrediting the pope for involving in political issues, which are outside his expertise.

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