Synod office announces plan to reduce assembly’s carbon footprint September 22, 2023By Catholic News Service Catholic News Service Filed Under: Feature, News, Synodality, Vatican, World News VATICAN CITY (CNS) — With more than 450 people gathering at the Vatican from around the world for a monthlong meeting, the General Secretariat of the Synod said it is taking action to reduce the environmental impact of the synod assembly. Making the event plastic free, eliminating waste, using only recycled paper and only when necessary are part of the plan, but with more than 50 percent of the assembly’s calculated carbon footprint coming from long-distance travel, the Vatican has secured financial support from the Switzerland-based SOS Planet Foundation to generate offsetting carbon credits by sending “efficient cooking stoves and water purification technologies to households, communities and institutions” in Kenya and Nigeria. The first assembly of the Synod of Bishops is scheduled to meet at the Vatican Oct. 4-29. A second assembly is planned for October 2024. Announcing the carbon-offset plan Sept. 19, the synod office also noted that the synod’s opening day is when Pope Francis has said he will publish a follow-up document to his 2015 encyclical, “Laudato Si’, On Care for Our Common Home.” The choice of fuel-efficient cook stoves and water purification systems “responds to the criterion of integral ecology” Laudato Si’ called for by combining concern for the environment, attention to local needs and concrete assistance to people, the synod office said. Read More Vatican News Sacred music must be ‘dignified,’ reflecting the mystery being celebrated, pope says San Antonio priest laicized, excommunicated after calling Popes Francis and Leo ‘usurpers’ Pope offers prayers for Zimbabwe ferry disaster as death toll passes 90 Pope calls for end to West Bank violence, pursuit of two-state solution Pope ‘saddened’ by devastation in Indonesia following earthquake True beauty found in enduring love, which ‘ennobles and lifts us up,’ pope says on feast of Assumption Copyright © 2023 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Print
True beauty found in enduring love, which ‘ennobles and lifts us up,’ pope says on feast of Assumption
