In an historic letter addressed to “every person living on this planet,” Pope Francis this week called for urgent action to stop “the unprecedented destruction” of the earth, which he said “is beginning to look more and more like an immense pile of filth.” He said care for creation and care for the poor are morally intertwined. The pope’s highly-anticipated encyclical, or teaching document, was released Thursday (June 18) at a Vatican news conference. In it, Francis criticized “huge consumption” in wealthy countries, which he said has repercussions on the poorest areas of the world. He called climate change one of the “principal challenges facing humanity” and said there is scientific consensus that it is largely the result of human activities. The pope timed his statement to precede a United Nations gathering this fall that will try to produce an international agreement for reducing climate change. Some critics accused Francis of being too political and relying too much on a particular scientific view. But others, including many faith groups, praised him for injecting a moral dimension into the environmental debate. In Washington, representatives of the US Catholic bishops welcomed the document:

Archbishop Joseph Kurtz (President, US Conference of Catholic Bishops): “I think we’ll find that there really is an invitation, it’s an invitation to dialogue, but not a weak invitation. There’s an urgency in calling for that dialogue.”

Watch our report from Louisiana on climate change and the responses of religious groups.