The Vatican has joined Cyprus’ Climate Initiative as an Observer State, following an invitation by President of the Republic Nicos Anastasiades.
According to a Cyprus Institute press release, the invitation was relayed to Pope Francis by Professor Costas Papanicolas, Advisor to the President of the Republic of Cyprus and Special Envoy of Climate Change and President of the Cyprus Institute, and Professor Fadi Comair, Director of the Environment Energy and Water Research Center (EEWRC) during a private, closed meeting with Pope Francis on May 16 at the Vatican.
The meeting was a result of the strong ties between the Institute and the Vatican, and comes in addition to the strong collaboration the Institute already enjoys with the Italian state, following the visit by His Holiness Pope Francis to Cyprus on December 2, 2021
Prof. Papanicolas relayed to His Holiness Pope Francis the invitation by the President of the Republic of Cyprus. Nicos Anastasiades, for the Vatican to participate as an observer state in the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East Climate Change Initiative (EMME-CCI).
The Pope reiterated his deep concern about the effects of Climate Change and the human suffering it will induce and in particular refugee flows. The Papal Encyclical “Laudato si’” issued in 2015 and articulates in detail his concerns about climate change and his vision on how to take relevant action, provided the basis for an extensive discussion on how it could be used to enhance the EMME-CCI. It was agreed that EMME-CCI addresses the urgent need for action to mitigate climate change and ameliorate its impacts.
The EMME-CCI was launched by President Anastasiades in 2019, and within its framework the Cyprus Government has been coordinating efforts towards the shaping of a Regional Climate Action Plan for the countries of the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East (EMME) region. In the context of the EMME-CCI, over 200 scientists were coordinated by The Cyprus Institute, to produce scientific reports on the state of climate in the EMME, and policy recommendations for effective mitigation and adaptation to the climate crisis. These reports have provided the basis for ongoing intergovernmental discussions for the shaping of a concerted regional approach to climate action, which will culminate in an EMME Heads of State Summit on October 25, 2022. The Vatican was invited to participate in the Summit and in the preceding Ministerial Meetings, the next one scheduled for June 7, 2022.
Pope Francis accepted the President’s invitation and Vatican has become an observer state to the EMME-CCI.
Moreover, Pope Francis advised Prof. Papanicolas and Prof. Comair to meet with the designated Vatican cardinals responsible for the dicasteries (Vatican State Ministries) to follow up on climate change and other related issues.
In this context, Profs Papanicolas and Comair and the Ambassador of Cyprus to the Vatican, George Poullides, had meetings at a number of dicasteries, including Foreign Affairs, Integral Human Development and Sciences and Social Sciences.
Particularly engaging, the press release said, “was the meeting with Cardinal Turkson, Chancellor of the Pontifical Academies of Sciences and Social Sciences, where the importance of cooperation on scientific issues relating to the Climate Crisis but also to cultural heritage were extensively discussed.”
In a separate meeting with officers from the Cyprus Embassy in Rome the issue of Climate Change was discussed in the presence of Marios Georgiades, deputy permanent representative of Cyprus to the UN agencies in Rome (the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), and the World Food Programme (WFP). It was agreed that tremendous opportunities exist that need to be pursued, in particular with the Vatican and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
The meeting also provided the opportunity to discuss future initiatives to be pursued between The Cyprus Institute and Vatican Dicastries, aiming to reinforce cooperation within the Catholic Network Universities in Europe and other important scientific institutions.
Prof. Papanicolas offered a special gift to Pope Francis highlighting the contribution of CyI interdisciplinary research in the study and preservation of the past. The gift consisted of an exact replica of a detail from the 14th century wall paintings in the catacomb of Saint Solomoni in Pafos.
The particular detail depicts the hand of a Church Father holding an opened scroll. Devotional graffiti in Greek, Armenian and Latin, tentatively dated in the 15th-17th centuries, were incised directly on the fresco surface. The graffiti testify the passage of pilgrims and migrants and underline the long continuity of the cult and the diachronic role of Cyprus as a place of pilgrimage and migration at the crossroads of the Mediterranean, a theme that was underscored by Pope Francis himself during his last visit to the island.
The replica of the fresco was possible through the 2D and 3D digital imaging of the catacomb by The Cyprus Institute and the Andreas Pittas Art Characterization Laboratories Labs (APAC Labs) of the Science and Technology in Archaeology and Culture Research Center (STARC), which was led by graffiti heritage expert Dr Mia Trentin. The fresco detail copy was realized with the collaboration of Dr. Iosif Hadjikyriakos, painter and art historian.
Source: Cyprus News Agency