Pope Leo XIV takes aim at climate skeptics as he embraces predecessor's environmental legacy

ROME (AP) — Pope Leo XIV took aim Wednesday at skeptics who “ridicule those who speak of global warming,” as he strongly embraced Pope Francis’ environmental legacy and made it his own in some of his strongest and most extensive comments to date.

Leo presided over the 10th anniversary celebration of Francis’ landmark ecological encyclical, Laudato Si (Praised Be) at a global gathering south of Rome. The encyclical cast care for the planet as an urgent and existential moral concern and launched a global grassroots movement to advocate for caring for God’s creation and the peoples most harmed by its exploitation.

Leo told the estimated 1,000 representatives from environmental and indigenous groups that they needed to pressure national governments to develop tougher standards to mitigate the damage already done. He said he hoped the upcoming U.N. climate conference “will listen to the cry of the Earth and the cry of the poor.”

He didn’t name names, but history’s first American pope spoke just days after U.S. President Donald Trump complained, with false statements, to the U.N. General Assembly about the “con job” of global warming. Trump has long been a critic of climate science and polices aimed at helping the world transition to green energies like wind and solar power.

Leo quoted Francis’ follow-up encyclical, published in 2023, in which the Argentine pope shamed and challenged world leaders ahead of a U.N. conference to commit to binding targets to slow climate change before it’s too late.

Citing Francis’ text, Leo recalled that some leaders had chosen to “deride the evident signs of climate change, to ridicule those who speak of global warming and even to blame the poor for the very thing that affects them most.”

Leo called for a change of heart to truly embrace the environmental cause and said any Christian should be on board.

“We cannot love God, whom we cannot see, while despising his creatures. Nor can we call ourselves disciples of Jesus Christ without participating in his outlook on creation and his care for all that is fragile and wounded,” he said, presiding on a stage that featured a huge hunk of a melting glacier from Greenland and tropical ferns.

Leo has strongly taken up Francis’ ecological mantle, giving his blessing to a Vatican plan to turn an agricultural field north of Rome into a vast solar farm. Once it is up and running, the farm is expected to make the Vatican City the world’s first carbon-neutral state.

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, right, delivers his speech at the International conference "Raising Hope for Climate Justice" attended by Pope Leo XIV, in Castel Gandolfo, Italy, Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Pope Leo XIV, center, attends the International conference "Raising Hope for Climate Justice", in Castel Gandolfo, Italy, Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Pope Leo XIV, center, attends the International conference "Raising Hope for Climate Justice", in Castel Gandolfo, Italy, Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Pope Leo XIV attends the International conference "Raising Hope for Climate Justice", in Castel Gandolfo, Italy, Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Pope Leo XIV, center, attends the International conference "Raising Hope for Climate Justice", in Castel Gandolfo, Italy, Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A Liberian man who has been shuttled in and out of custody since immigration agents in Minnesota broke down his door with a battering ram was released again Friday, hours after a routine check-in with authorities led to his second arrest.

President Donald Trump, meanwhile, backed off a bit from his threat a day earlier to invoke an 1807 law, the Insurrection Act, to send troops to suppress protests in Minnesota during an unprecedented immigration sweep in the Twin Cities.

“I don’t think there’s any reason right now to use it, but if I needed it, I’d use it," Trump told reporters outside the White House.

The dramatic initial arrest of Garrison Gibson last weekend was captured on video. U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Bryan ruled the arrest unlawful Thursday and freed him, but Gibson was detained again Friday when he appeared at an immigration office.

A few hours later, Gibson was free again, attorney Marc Prokosch said.

“In the words of my client, he said that somebody at ICE said they bleeped up and so they re-released him this afternoon and so he’s out of custody,” Prokosch said, referring to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Gibson’s arrest is one of more than 2,500 made during a weekslong immigration crackdown in Minneapolis and St. Paul, according to the Department of Homeland Security. The operation has intensified and become more confrontational since the fatal shooting of Renee Good on Jan. 7.

Gibson, 37, who fled the civil war in his West African home country as a child, had been ordered removed from the U.S., apparently because of a 2008 drug conviction that was later dismissed. He has remained in the country legally under what’s known as an order of supervision, Prokosch said, and complied with the requirement that he meet regularly with immigration authorities. =

In his Thursday order, the judge agreed that officials violated regulations by not giving Gibson enough notice that his supervision status had been revoked. Prokosch said he was told by ICE that they are “now going through their proper channels" to revoke the order.

Meanwhile, tribal leaders and Native American rights organizations are advising anyone with a tribal ID to carry it with them when out in public in case they are approached by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.

Native Americans across the U.S. have reported being stopped or detained by ICE, and tribal leaders are asking members to report these contacts.

Ben Barnes, chief of the Shawnee Tribe in Oklahoma and chair of the United Indian Nations of Oklahoma, called the reports “deeply concerning”.

Organizers in Minneapolis have set up application booths in the city to assist people needing a tribal ID.

Democratic members of Congress held a local meeting Friday to hear from people who say they've had aggressive encounters with immigration agents. St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her, who is Hmong American, said people are walking around with their passports in case they are challenged, and she has received reports of ICE agents going from door to door “asking where the Asian people live.” Thousands of Hmong people, largely from the Southeast Asian nation of Laos, have settled in the United States since the 1970s.

Minneapolis authorities released police and fire dispatch logs and transcripts of 911 calls, all related to the fatal shooting of Good. Firefighters found what appeared to be two gunshot wounds in her right chest, one in her left forearm and a possible gunshot wound on the left side of her head, records show.

“They shot her, like, cause she wouldn’t open her car door,” a caller said. “Point blank range in her car.”

Good, 37, was at the wheel of her Honda Pilot, which was partially blocking a street. Video showed an officer approached the SUV, demanded that she open the door and grabbed the handle.

Good began to pull forward and turned the vehicle's wheel to the right. Another ICE officer, Jonathan Ross, pulled his gun and fired at close range, jumping back as the SUV moved past him. DHS claims the agent shot Good in self-defense.

FBI Director Kash Patel said at least one person has been arrested for stealing property from an FBI vehicle in Minneapolis. The SUV was among government vehicles whose windows were broken Wednesday evening. Attorney General Pam Bondi said body armor and weapons were stolen.

The destruction occurred when agents were responding to a shooting during an immigration arrest. Trump subsequently said on social media that he would invoke the Insurrection Act if Minnesota officials don’t stop the “professional agitators and insurrectionists” there.

Minnesota’s attorney general responded by saying he would sue if the president acts.

Associated Press reporters Ed White and Corey Williams in Detroit; Graham Lee Brewer in Oklahoma City; Jesse Bedayn in Denver; Audrey McAvoy in Honolulu; and Ben Finley in Washington contributed.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, including one wearing a 'NOT ICE' face covering, walk near their vehicles, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Richfield, Minn. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)

A person looks out of their vehicle as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents walk away, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Richfield, Minn. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)