Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumYes! Pope's Stance On Environment Increasingly Pissing Off US Conservatives
NEW YORK Conservative distrust of Pope Francis, which has been building in the U.S. throughout his pontificate, is reaching a boiling point over his plan to urge action on climate change and to do so through a document traditionally used for the most important papal teachings. For months, Francis has been drafting an encyclical on the environment and global warming which he hopes to release by June or July. Encyclicals are written with the help of a small group of advisers working under strict secrecy. But in a news conference as he traveled last week to the Philippines, Francis gave his strongest signal yet of the direction he'll take.
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"Pope Francis and I say this as a Catholic is a complete disaster when it comes to his public policy pronouncements," wrote Steve Moore, chief economist of The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. "On the economy, and even more so on the environment, the pope has allied himself with the far left and has embraced an ideology that would make people poorer and less free."
At the website of the Catholic journal First Things, a blogger accused the pope of promoting "theologized propaganda" on conservation a post the journal's editor later disavowed and published guidance by prominent Catholic thinker Robert George about what should be considered authoritative in an encyclical and what could be ignored.
"For the most part, they are conservatives who have criticized other Catholics in the past for disagreeing with definitive statements in papal encyclicals." said David Cloutier, a theologian at Mount St. Mary's University in Maryland who specializes in the environment. "They're scared that the document is going to say something definitive that they can't agree with. That will put them in a very difficult situation."
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http://www.nola.com/religion/index.ssf/2015/01/pope_francis_stand_on_climate.html
TexasProgresive
(12,157 posts)Christ to Francis of Assisi
Go likewise Pope Francis, repair the Church which is in disarray.
BrotherIvan
(9,126 posts)Pope Francis can do something right this minute to curb climate change and upcoming loss of resources: tomorrow he can help stem future suffering and misery. He can tell his flock that it's ok to use birth control and that all his hospitals and missions will now provide reproductive care. He will order his bishops will stop working with companies like Hobby Lobby and politicians to limit access to women who aren't even Catholic. He can do this with one sentence and help families who would have fallen into poverty, women who would have health risks and possible death, and those little children that he loves so much that are born unwanted and unplanned in squalid conditions. Amen.
Mellynjess
(3 posts)All the while pipeline in America and around the world continue to spill oil.