The Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I was the first to define abuse of nature as an ecological sin. In an address on environmental stewardship at the Notre Dame University, Oct. 28, he joined the explicit call for ecocide as a crime:
“We are all called to make connections between hurting people and hurting the Earth. … There should be moral, social and legal repercussions when we harm God´s Creation. This is why we applaud efforts to expand relevant statutes of international law to include ecocide, defined as the unlimited and unlawful destruction of ecosystems.”
The Patriarch is the spiritual leader of the Eastern Orthodox Christian church, the second largest Christian church with approximately 220 million members.
Directly to the part where the Patriarch speaks about ecocide law.