VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican stressed Thursday that the movement to combat climate change is unstoppable and worldwide, although it said it would welcome a U.S. return to the Paris agreement.

The Holy See's foreign minister, Monsignor Paul Gallagher, at a news conference marking five years since Pope Francis' encyclical "Laudato Si'" decrying human damage to the environment, insisted that "humanity will not be blown off course" by any one player's decision.

Last year, U.S. President Donald Trump's administration formally began the process to exit the climate deal, in which nearly 200 nation...