Speaking at a symposium of Catholic leaders in Belém, Brazil—the site of COP30, the UN climate change conference—the president of the Episcopal Conference of the Pacific warned that “the islands of our region are at risk of being submerged in our time.”
“Deep-sea mining is adding another layer of destruction,” said Archbishop Ryan Jimenez of Agaña, Guam. “Our communities are already feeling the impacts of climate change. Typhoons and ocean warming are also real threats.”
Archbishop Jimenez—misnamed and mistitled by the Vatican newspaper as “Cardinal Ryan Rimenes”—added that “we bishops of the Pacific region are committed to caring for our common home and the islands that are our home.”