The Church's Environment Commission has ‘unreservedly condemned' the vandalism made at the Foresta 2000 site, where 104 trees were destroyed yesterday.

Whoever committed this act wanted to hurt the many children and other people who contributed to this afforestation project , the commission said. This was a sin committed against God and society.

It urged the vandals to repent and to make up for the damage caused.

It also recalled statements by Pope Benedict and Pope John Paul II that environmental crises were actually moral crises, a crisis of values.

Society, it said, could not just condemn such acts without doing anything about them. The replacement of the trees was already a step in the right direction, but environmental issues should no longer be the prerogative of environmental NGOs.

Every citizen needed to defend the environment because this was a heritage which belonged to everyone.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.