Two months after Pope Francis’s visit to the United States, the strongest image of his time here is the image of a small black Fiat (with Francis inside) moving about Washington and New York City.  

Two weeks after the Paris attacks, Francis has an extraordinary opportunity to put that image to work to reduce the effects of climate change, which he has likened to the planet committing suicide.

Here’s the idea.  With worldwide climate talks taking place in Paris, Francis should go by Fiat from Rome to Paris to be present as an observer and moral supporter in the final round of talks.  

Such a drive would be a fourfold piece of symbolism of the kind that has characterized Francis’s pontificate brilliantly.  

It would affirm Francis’s support – and the support of the Catholic church generally – for efforts against climate change, a need spelled out powerfully in the encyclical Laudato'si in June.  

It would demonstrate the form of climate-friendly action most readily available to most people: a change in one’s daily habits and way of life.  Traveling internationally by small car instead of by private jet, this world leader would show that a simpler and more economical life is good for the planet and the climate, too.  (Sure, it would be even more climate-wise for Francis to go by rail – but the Fiat would make the point powerfully.)  

It would affirm a confidence in Paris and Europe – the essential safety of the place, and the virtue of open borders – in the time after the terrorist attacks in Paris.   Just last week Francis visited the Central African Republic, a literal war zone and probably the most perilous place any recent pope has visited.   Shouldn’t we be able to feel that he – and we – can drive from Rome to Paris without the need for security checkpoints and without a grave fear of attack?

And it would viscerally put Francis in solidarity with the tens of thousands of people who are traveling west through Europe just now in search of new homes and new lives. For a few days, it would make him a migrant like them.

All together, the symbolism would be extraordinary.    It might well be seen in retrospect as the moment when world leaders – and the human population generally – got serious about adjusting to climate change.  

In August I drove from Rome to Paris with my family, five of us in a Citroen 4.   It took about eighteen hours in two days, with a dozen hours’ driving on the second day. Because the EU has checkpoint-free borders, you just buckle in, set the GPS (in French, the “navigation”) and drive.  

Drive, Francis, drive!