Pope blesses a piece of ice at climate change conference

The Pope blessing a piece of ice. Photo: Pablo Esparza

On October 1, 2025, Pope Leo blessed a block of ice at a climate change conference organized by the Vatican.

The international conference, officially titled "Raising Hope for Climate Justice," took place from October 1 to 3, 2025, in Castel Gandolfo, Italy.

The event, organized by the Laudato Si' Movement with support from various Vatican dicasteries, gathered around 500 delegates representing world leaders, religious organizations, governments, and NGOs working in the field of climate justice. The event marks the 10th anniversary of Pope Francis' encyclical "Laudato Si', on Care for Our Common Home".

“We are one family, with one Father,” Pope Leo said, and “we inhabit the same planet and must care for it together.” “I, therefore, renew my strong appeal for unity around integral ecology and for peace!” he said.

According to the pontiff, “some have chosen to deride the increasingly evident signs of climate change, to ridicule those who speak of global warming and even to blame the poor for the very thing that affects them the most.”

“Everyone in society, through nongovernmental organizations and advocacy groups, must put pressure on governments to develop and implement more rigorous regulations, procedures and controls,” the Pope concluded.

As earlier reported, in his speech at the UN on September 23, 2025, Donald Trump stated that claims about global warming are "the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the world,” while talk of the carbon footprint is “a scam invented by people with malicious intent.”

You know, before, it was global cooling. In the 1920s and 1930s, they said global cooling would destroy the world. We needed to act. Then they said global warming would destroy the world. But then it got cooler. So now they just call it climate change, because that way they can’t miss. If you don’t abandon this green scam, your country will fail,” Trump said, also lashing out at “green” energy. 

Read also