Last Generation climate activists to stand trial at Vatican
VATICAN CITY Three Italian environmental activists face their second trial hearing at the Vatican on Wednesday for having glued themselves to the famous statue Laocoon and His Sons in the Vatican Museums last summer. Ester Goffi, a 25-year-old art history student, and Guido Viero, a 61-year-old health worker, glued their hands to the marble statue last August in a sign of protest urging world leaders to combat climate change, while an unnamed friend was filming on her phone. The statue was not damaged, and Vatican police eliminated the recording on the device after seizing it. The three stand trial at the Vatican on charges of vandalism. They belong to the Italian movement Ultima Generazione, which translates to Last Generation and is responsible for several public vandalism acts to major artistic and historical sites in Italy aimed at drawing attention to the danger of climate change. On Sunday, Last Generation activists filled the famous Trevi Fountain in Rome with black coloring to protest fossil fuels. At the first hearing on March 9, the activists chose not to attend. The Vatican legal system uses canon law, and its criminal law is based on the Italian penal code from 1889. The lawyers who are authorized to defend us in the Vatican State are too expensive and we cant afford them, a Last Generation spokesperson told local media outlets. Last Generation activists gathered Wednesday afternoon near the Vatican in protest. In an interview, they pointed to the floods that have overrun the northern region of Emilia Romagna in Italy, which has already claimed 14 lives, as a sour taste of what awaits us in the coming years. We must change the course immediately and cut public funding to fossil fuels if we wish to limit the escalation of extreme events and save innocent lives, the organization said. Our actions have this objective: Protect the lives of our fellow citizens and people living in the rest of the world. Ours is a desperate cry before the lack of action by politicians who have the responsibility to protect the environment and the populations. Pope Francis is considered an ally of environmental movements ever since he published his green encyclical Laudato Si in 2015 to promote the care of creation and the fight against climate change. In a new book, The Taste for Change: Ecological Transition as the Path to Happiness, he wrote in the preface that we must admit sincerely that it is the young people who embody the change we all objectively need. Religion News Service