Pope Benedict XVI, who is increasingly adopting a “green” agenda, yesterday ended a two-day youth rally by urging the young to “save the planet before it is too late”.

Addressing half a million young Catholics camped out in a sea of tents and sun hats at the shrine of Loreto, near Ancona, on the Adriatic coast, the Pope - dressed in bright green vestments - said that it fell to the young to save the planet from development that upset “nature’s delicate equilibrium”.

“Before it’s too late, we need to make courageous choices that will recreate a strong alliance between man and Earth,” the Pope said at an open-air Mass. “We need a decisive ‘yes’ to care for creation and a strong commitment to reverse those trends that risk making a situation of decay irreversible.”

He said water, in particular, was a precious resource which “unfortunately becomes a source of strong tensions and conflicts if it is not shared in an equitable and peaceful manner”. He also urged the young to adopt family values rather than “disposable love”.

The Italian Church, which organised the rally, designated yesterday as “Save Creation Day”, handing out bright orange knapsacks made from recycled nylon and containing bio-degradable plates, colour-coded rub-bisg recycling bags, prayer books printed on recycled paper and hand-cranked mobile-phone chargers.

The Vatican’s conversion to enviro-mental campaigning began in May, with a conference in Rome on climate change at which the Pope urged the Church, scientists and politicians to “respect creation” and “focus on sustainable development”. On his summer break in northern Italy he referred frequently to the need to conserve the natural wonders of “God’s creation”.

The Vatican has also announced plans to install solar panels on the roof of the papal audience hall next year, and has joined a reforestation project aimed at offsetting CO2 emissions.

Back to the garden

“And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it"

II Genesis xv
The Bible, New International version