Pope Francis was well known for his environmental activism. Time called him the “Climate Pope” for his prominent role in the global climate movement. He consistently talked about the consequences of human action on the planet and described the destruction of the environment as a “structural sin,” calling on people to act with urgency.
As I reflect on the Pope’s passing, I remember being drenched in rain while waiting to see him in Manila, alongside a crowd of more than 6 million people for what would be the largest papal mass ever held.
The record-breaking number was not surprising: the Philippines has one of the largest Catholic populations in the world, and at the time, Filipinos had a lot to pray for.
When Pope Francis visited in January 2015, Filipinos were still reeling from back-to-back typhoons in 2014 and a slew of tragedies in 2013, including a devastating earthquake, a deadly armed conflict, and Super Typhoon Haiyan, which killed more than 6,000 people and left more than 1,000 missing.
In 2013, I covered the impact of Haiyan on the Eastern Visayas region for a local news organization. Along the eastern coast, our news team saw flattened villages and destroyed coconut plantations. When we arrived in Tacloban City, where Haiyan hit the hardest, we were stunned by the overpowering smell of death and a city that appeared to have been bombed and turned into a war zone. Hearing the stories of Haiyan survivors eventually led me to climate reporting. And it led Pope Francis to visit Tacloban, ground zero of Haiyan’s devastation.
In his homily at Tacloban airport, just a day before I saw him in Manila, he said he’d wanted to come to the Philippines immediately after Haiyan.
“I am here to be with you. A little bit late, but I’m here,” he told the more than 200,000 rain-soaked typhoon survivors. He was supposed to see the devastation of Haiyan firsthand, but another approaching typhoon forced him to hold mass at the airport instead. During his emotional homily, he was moved to silence as he pondered how many of the survivors had lost everything, including their families.
Just four months later he published the landmark encyclical Laudato Si’ (Praise Be), which highlighted the urgent need to care for the environment, emphasizing the impact of climate change on the most vulnerable. I’ve often wondered if his experience with typhoon survivors in the Philippines, among the world’s most climate-vulnerable countries, might have inspired his writings.
In his encyclical, he talked about how interwoven climate change and social justice were. Perhaps it was something he saw when he visited the people of Eastern Visayas, among the Philippines’ poorest and most typhoon-prone regions.
As with any leader, people have mixed feelings about Pope Francis’ legacy. But to Haiyan survivors, he was the pope who braved the storm for them.
Banner image of Pope Francis at Tacloban airport, courtesy of Benhur Arcayan/Malacanang Photo Bureau (Public domain).
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