The course of studies, called "Care of our common home and protection of creation," was established in cooperation with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople, the spiritual leader of the world's 300 million Orthodox Christians.

"Let's permanently ditch this — ‘it has always been done this way' — it's suicide," he said. "It creates superficiality and answers that are valid only in appearance," he said at the launch.

A UNESCO Chair "On Futures of Education for Sustainability" was also inaugurated. Francis signed an agreement to establish the new chair with Audrey Azoulay, director-general of UNESCO.

Both initiatives are endorsed by the Catholic and the Eastern Orthodox churches.

Patriarch Bartholomew said the initiatives reflect the collaboration between the two "sister churches" and their commitment to work to protect "God's wonderful universe."

They also reflect a needed interreligious and interdisciplinary approach to the urgent environmental challenges of today, especially concerning climate change, he added.

The chair will encompass the fields of theology, philosophy, law and socioeconomic aspects "in order to train and shape students (in) how to respond to the ecological crisis in a collaborative and conscientious manner," he said.

Pope Francis praised the patriarch's decades-long dedication to promoting safeguarding creation. He quoted the patriarch's conviction that safeguarding "is a way of loving, of moving gradually away from what I want to what God's world needs. It is liberation from fear, greed and compulsion."

The pope encouraged the Lateran academic community to have "an attitude that requires openness, creativity, broader educational offers, but also sacrifice, commitment, transparency and honesty in choices, especially in this difficult time."

"Let us definitively abandon that ‘it has always been done this way,'" the pope said, calling it a suicidal mentality, which "generates superficiality and answers that are valid only in appearance."

Sources

Catholic News

Catholic News Agency

Asia News

Metropolitan Ilarion, the head of the Russian Orthodox church's external relations, says Constantinople's decision allowing the Ukranian Orthodox church to establish itself as an independent church is behind the move.

Ilarion says the Constantinople Patriarchate synod's decision to officially recognise "the leaders of the schism" within the Ukrainian Orthodox Church legitimises "the schism that has existed for more than a quarter of a century."

Ilarion says that "has made it impossible for us to stay united with the Constantinople Patriarchate."

The Russian Orthodox church will "respond firmly" to Bartholomew's decision, he says.

Ilarion's statement was made soon after Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, held a meeting with the Russian Security Council to discuss the Orthodox church in Ukraine.

Following this, the Kremlin made a fresh warning about Ukraine capital Kyiv's quest for an independent church.

It said Russia would protect the interests of Orthodox Christians in Ukraine if the split were to lead to illegal action or violence.

Reverend Aleksandr Volkov, a spokesman for Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, says the Holy Synod of the Church would "express its position," without elaborating on what measures it might take.

The Russian Orthodox church's branch in Ukraine has long been accepted by Constantinople Patriarchate as Ukraine's legitimate church, he says.

He has warned the Russian Orthodox synod's response to Constantinople over Ukraine will be "appropriate and tough".

Source

• Reuters
• Unian
• RFERL
• Image: The Catholic Sun