Pope Francis said he was considering updating the Catholic Church catechism to include sins against the environment as he urged a continued fight against “ecocide” by global capitalism.
“We have to introduce, we are thinking about it, in the catechism of the Catholic Church, the sin against ecology, the sin against our common home, because it’s a duty,” he said Friday while talking to a group of lawyers according to the Catholic publication Crux. Francis tied environmental waste to hatred.
“It is no coincidence that in these times, emblems and actions typical of Nazism reappear, which, with its persecutions against Jews, gypsies, and people of homosexual orientation, represents the negative model par excellence of a culture of waste and hatred,” he said. “We must be vigilant, both in the civil sphere and the ecclesial context, to avoid any possible compromise – which is assumed to be involuntary — with these degenerations.”
The pope pointed the finger at capitalism for environmental harm. “Global financial capital is at the origin of serious crimes not only against property but also against people and the environment,” Francis said, comparing capitalism to “organized crime” committing “ecocide.” The pope told the group he was talking to that the crimes committed by corporations should be punished.
Francis also evoked Hitler again during his speech, saying he was “reminded” of the rhetoric by certain governments today. In August, he made similar comments saying he was hearing “speeches that resemble those of Hitler in 1934.”
Francis was at the 20th world congress of the International Association of Penal Law, which occurs in Rome. A bishops’ summit had been held just weeks ago that talked about the Amazon forest and the continued environmental issues surrounding it.
