Merkel Says Pope Francis Urged Her to Fight for Paris Climate Accord
Ms. Merkel told reporters she had briefed the pope on Germany’s Group of 20 agenda, which she said "assumes
that we are a world in which we want to work together multilaterally, a world in which we don’t want to build walls but bring down walls." Francis has consistently called for nations to build bridges, not walls — an apparent reference to the wall that President Trump wants to build on the border with Mexico.
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESSJUNE 17, 2017
VATICAN CITY — Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany said on Saturday
that Pope Francis had encouraged her to work to preserve the Paris climate accord despite the United States’ decision to withdraw and that he shared her aim to "bring down walls," not build them.
The pope issued the encyclical in the run-up to the Paris negotiations in hopes of urging a global consensus on the need to change "perverse" development models
that he said had enriched the wealthy at the expense of the poor and turned God’s creation into an "immense pile of filth." The audience began with Francis expressing his condolences over the death of Helmut Kohl, Germany’s chancellor from 1982 to 1998.
As he did when Mr. Trump visited last month, Francis gave Ms. Merkel a copy of his environmental encyclical, "Praise Be," which casts fighting climate change
and caring for the environment as urgent moral obligations.
Ms. Merkel said Francis had encouraged her to fight for international agreements, including
the 2015 Paris climate accord, which aims to curb heat-trapping emissions.
Ms. Merkel met with the pope for about 40 minutes on Saturday in the Apostolic Palace, focusing
on a Group of 20 summit meeting that Germany will host in Hamburg from July 7-8.