Monday, March 18, AD 2024 10:34pm

PopeWatch: Green Pope

VATICAN-POPE-AUDIENCE

 

How bad will the upcoming Papal encyclical on the environment be?  Maybe this bad:

As the world celebrates Earth Day on Wednesday, Pope Francis is planning to use one of the highest forms of papal expression — an encyclical — to promote climate action to save the planet as a moral and religious imperative.

In recent weeks, Vatican officials have outlined what the document will say and are choreographing its release — perhaps as early as June — for maximum global impact beyond the Roman Catholic Church’s 1.2 billion members.

Archbishop Thomas Wenski of Miami, who chairs a panel dealing with environmental issues for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said the encyclical has “gone to the translators, so it’s at the end of its birthing process.”

First on the promotional agenda is an April 28 Vatican conference where United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon will be a keynote speaker. The goal is to advance the morality argument that is a theme of the encyclical.

Then on successive days beginning Sept. 23, the pope will visit the White House, address a joint session of Congress — the first pontiff to do so — and address the U.N. General Assembly at the beginning of a summit on sustainable development.

“The timing of the encyclical is significant,” Cardinal Peter Turkson told a university audience in Ireland last month. “2015 is a critical year for humanity. … The coming 10 months are crucial.”

The Ghanian cardinal, who heads the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and who helped draft the encyclical, said all events lead to Paris in December, when nations will gather to debate how to slow or reduce global warming. He described the core message of the encyclical as “human ecology,” arguing that global economic inequality — a theme Francis has frequently raised — is inextricably linked to climate change.

Go here to read the rest.  There are few more foolish things that a Pope can do than wed his great prestige to junk science.  PopeWatch prays this is not what Pope Francis is about to do.

0 0 votes
Article Rating
10 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Philip
Philip
Friday, April 24, AD 2015 4:17am

I sense an EOTT headline coming on.

New Carbon Tax? Indulgences for those who drive hybrids? Or how about a Sunday offering. Each Sunday a “green” collection will follow the offering basket.
The proceeds can fund the wind turbines for transgendered homosexuals…thats a man trapped inside a woman who’s attracted to women that are trapped inside a man.
The world is so complex.

Don Lond
Don Lond
Friday, April 24, AD 2015 4:36am

With spires crumbling, echoes resonating in near empty churches, millions of “Catholic” souls living unrepentantly in serious sin, scandals in Catholic charities everywhere, cardinals leading a march with celebrating homosexuals, doctrine and the sacraments under unprecedented attack, it is the great UN birthed political climate change hoax that requires our immediate attention?
The pantheist earth worshippers (and the political one world left) must be near ecstatic.

Stephen E Dalton
Stephen E Dalton
Friday, April 24, AD 2015 4:48am

This Pope really is green, a greenhorn who doesn’t know what he’s talking about! BTW, I imagine he will have some ‘profound’ statement about that volcano in Chile, and it’s impact on the environment.

Paul W Primavera
Friday, April 24, AD 2015 10:21am

Will the Pope support the ONLY non-carbon method of energy production that has a 90+% capacity factor, or will he jump on the mindless no-nukes bandwagon? Clerics generally know nothing about science and engineering though prior to Vatican II that was not always the case.

RodneyHood1314
RodneyHood1314
Friday, April 24, AD 2015 3:37pm

If it’s going to be anything like his purported economic policy…look, this is happening. We can twiddle our thumbs and be hella dismissive about our current Pope’s direction while we eagerly anticipate his doing something irrefutably anti-Catholic. Or, and let me entertain this thought for a minute, maybe it’s time for a definitive Catholic perspective on an issue revered mostly by people who don’t give a toss whether or not they understand what they’re being spoon fed.

The earth’s climate is changing: we have Milankovitch cycles, plate tectonics, and the like to thank for that. Are humans causing even more of an impact? The arrogant say we are. Most scientists say so as well. Since we’re adding more carbon to the atmosphere through fossil fuel burning, deforestation, agricultural practices, etc., we are affecting the world’s carbon cycle.

Beyond that, though, it’s all speculative and polemical. The anthropogenic climate change argument is simplistic because Earth’s natural processes are so slow and multifarious as to defy mortal comprehension, at least at the moment. The smug supporters of this movement rely on fear-mongering and educated guesses to get smug people to go along for the ride. My hope for Francis’ encyclical is that it recognizes that good Catholics are not fools who can be swayed by bully environmentalists.

That said, humans have left a bit of a mess in their wake. Just look at China. We still need to treat the world in which we live with respect. Hopefully that will be the heart of this encyclical’s argument, and not the current climate agenda.

Paul W Primavera
Friday, April 24, AD 2015 4:47pm

I agree with most of what RodneyHood states. But not once is the dreaded “N” word mentioned – nuclear.
.
Only nuclear energy can supply carbon-free electricity at a capacity factor greater than 90%.
.
And yes, nuclear energy is the SAFEST form of power generation even including TMI (which neither killed nor injured anyone), Chernobyl (a graphite moderated, light water cooled design that could never be licensed in the West), and Fukushima (which killed a dozen people, all from industrial accidents vice radiation).
.
Read on:
.
Deaths per Terawatt Hour by Energy Source
http://nextbigfuture.com/2011/03/deaths-per-twh-by-energy-source.html
.
Does the Pope know this? Has anyone told him? Does he grasp the engineering and scientific principles in this matter?
.
My guess as to the answers for all these questions: NO.
.
But maybe I am wrong. We will see with what a Peronist leftist Argentinian comes up.

Mal
Mal
Friday, April 24, AD 2015 8:30pm

The Ghanaian Cardinal is, perhaps, correct in saying that economic poverty is linked to climate change. We know that floods, storms and droughts do cause many serious problems. However, are these natural events caused by man? I do not think so. However, we also know that greed on the part of rich communities does impact negatively on the poorer countries. And then there is corruption. It is sad to see leaders in the poor countries serving themselves rather than the people.

I believe that it is important for us, including the Cardinal and the Pope, to realize that greed, corruption and poverty are symptoms or consequences of a very fundamental problem: spiritual or moral poverty. Jesus was aware of this. He did not criticise the economic (free enterprise) system or political system of his time. He just asked people to love as he did. He asked employers and employees to love and respect each other. Jesus’ teachings can make any political or economic system work well. Otherwise, nothing will go well. The Church’s mission is to preach Jesus, not worldly solutions.

Don the Kiwi
Friday, April 24, AD 2015 10:04pm

Meanwhile, there has been no increase in the earth’s temperature for 18 years, CO 2 in the atmosphere is up to 400 ppm.
Great – more CO 2 to promote plant growth.
Don’t you just love sucking in the CO 2 ? So what percentage of the atmosphere is CO2 ? Oh that’s right – 0.23%. That’s frightening.
Meanwhile, other scientists are saying that conditions could promote another mini-ice age. So many questions – who to believe? Ho hum……….I’m alright Jack.

Dale Price
Dale Price
Monday, April 27, AD 2015 9:14am

He’s a fan of Kasper’s junk theology, so at least he’d be consistent…

Discover more from The American Catholic

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading

Scroll to Top