Sept 02nd

The Creator has bestowed abundant energy on the world, and over the ages man has applied his genius to harnessing and using it for his needs. But in our times, in what may be called the technical age of man, the possible uses of energy are increasing enormously: not only energy of the "traditional" kind but also energy which comes from sources which have so far been used little or not at all, such as the sun or the wind or even the waters and vapors hidden in the bowels of the earth: solar energy, wind energy, geothermal energy.
Your discussions will focus on these new possibilities, not so much in order to consider the abstract principles as to draw up an inventory of existing concrete achievements in various regions of the universe which may be applied with success elsewhere. And you are concerned above all, we know, with the well-being of mankind and you wish in particular to help the peoples of the underdeveloped countries, whose enormous needs constitute today a ceaseless appeal to all men of feeling.
On many occasions, and most recently at considerable length in the Encyclical Mater et Magistra on the social question, we exhorted our sons of the Catholic Church, and with them all men of good will, to show a greater awareness of their duties towards these less favored brothers.


― From the Address of His Holiness John XXIII to the United Nations Conference on New Sources of Energy 28 August, 1961