DUBAI, Dec 3 (Reuters) - Pope Francis said on Sunday that it was essential for all world religions to unite in opposing the "rapacious" devastation of the environment.

The 86-year-old pope had planned to preside at the opening of the Faith Pavilion at the C0P28 climate conference in Dubai but a lung inflammation forced him to remain in the Vatican.

"Religions, as voices of conscience for humanity, remind us that we are finite creatures, possessed of a need for the infinite," the pope said, noting that a Faith Pavilion was a first at a COP conference.

Religions, he said, "need, urgently, to act for the sake of the environment", educate their members to "sober and fraternal lifestyles" instead of wasteful ones and work for a return to the individual contemplation of nature's grandeur.

But a Reuters investigation found that in the United States, the world's top oil and gas producer and where about a quarter of the population is Catholic, not a single diocese has announced it has let go of its fossil fuel assets.

"Before our very eyes, we can see how wars and conflicts are harming the environment and dividing nations, hindering a common commitment to addressing shared problems like the protection of the planet," he said

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