ROME (AP) — The Vatican on Friday launched a campaign to encourage divestment from mining industries, saying the Catholic Church should invest its money in ways that are consistent with its ecological teachings. The effort, which also involves other Christian organizations, takes as its inspiration Pope Francis’ 2015 environmental encyclical “Praised Be.” The document, and the ecological movement it inspired, railed against the multinational corporations that pillage Earth’s natural resources, often at the expense of poor and Indigenous peoples. The initiative is the brainchild of an existing ecumenical network of Catholic and other Christian denominations, the Churches and Mining Network, that is active in particular in Latin America. The campaign aims to encourage local churches to review their investment strategies and divest where needed, and to share information especially with Indigenous groups about the types of extraction occurring on their lands. Yolanda Flores, a leader of the Aymara peoples in Peru, teared up at a Vatican news conference describing how Indigenous mothers are left to fear they are poisoning their children because their drinking water has been polluted by extraction runoff. “The big question is: Who finances this? Who provides the money to poison us?” she said. Guatemalan Cardinal Álvaro Ramazzini recalled that when he was bishop of San Marcos, the Guatemalan government allowed a Canadian mining firm to explore, and then extract silver and gold from the land. While the project provided short-term employment to the local population, the ultimate winners were the shareholders, he said. “Was it a legal activity? Yes. Was…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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