This week, Pope Leo XIV  sent a video message to religious leaders attending the U.N. climate talks, urging countries to “take concrete action” to stop climate change that is threatening the planet, telling them that humans are failing in their response to global warming and that God’s creation “is crying out in floods, droughts, storms and relentless heat.”  He added that “one in three people live in great vulnerability because of these climate changes.  To them, climate threat is not a distant threat, and to ignore these people is to deny our shared humanity.”  He went on to say that “as stewards of God’s creation, we are called to act swiftly, with faith and prophecy, to protect the gift He entrusted to us.”  Leo added that “what is failing is the political will of some.” David Gibson, director of the Center on Religion and Culture at Fordham University, said that the pope is becoming the world’s most prominent moral leader against climate change, especially for the Southern Hemisphere where climate change is wreaking havoc with the vulnerable in Asia, Africa and Latin America.  The Laudato Si’ movement called the pope’s message “a profound moral intervention,” adding that what truly matters is our shared humanity and the urgent duty to act with courage, compassion, and justice.