Protect environment, says Pope Francis

Protecting the environment is an imminent requirement, said Pope Francis who urged the education sector to contribute towards it.

"We can no longer turn our backs on reality, on our brothers and sisters, on mother earth," he declared at a talk on Tuesday at the Pontifical Catholic University in Ecuador's capital Quito, Spanish news agency Efe reported.

"It is wrong to turn aside from what is happening all around us, as if certain situations did not exist or have nothing to do with our life," he added.

While beginning his address, the pope touched upon a parable about a sower, read out during the ceremony and emphasised, ever since the time of Genesis, God has quietly urged people to "cultivate and care for the earth".

"We are not only invited to share in the work of creation and to cultivate it, but to make it grow and to develop it. We are also invited to care for it, to protect it, to be its guardians," he explained.

This, he said, "is no longer a mere recommendation, but rather a requirement", because of the harm "we have inflicted on (the earth) by our irresponsible use and abuse of the goods with which God has endowed it".

"We have come to see ourselves as her lord and master, entitled to plunder it at will," he lamented.