Pope spurs Republicans to shift climate views

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://mediarelations.cornell.edu/2017/01/24/pope-spurs-republicans-to-shift-climate-views/

[font face=Serif][font size=5]Pope spurs Republicans to shift climate views[/font]

January 24, 2017 By Melissa Osgood

[font size=3]After Pope Francis framed climate change as a moral issue in his second encyclical, conservative Republicans shifted and began to see environmental dilemmas in the same way, according to a new study led by Cornell University communication researchers.

“When Pope Francis issued his encyclical paper in June 2015, he emerged as a strong advocate for climate action,” said Jonathon P. Schuldt, assistant professor of communication. “He is in many ways uniquely positioned as a global moral authority – a religious authority – and his position is very visible.”

Schuldt, along with Adam R. Pearson of Pomona College and Rainer Romero-Canyas and Dylan Larson-Konar, both of the Environmental Defense Fund, sought to understand a mechanism for changing public opinion about climate change. Their research, “Brief Exposure to Pope Francis Heightens Moral Beliefs About Climate Change,” was published online in the journal Climatic Change, Dec. 30.

The pontiff addressed waste, culture and modern day ills in the encyclical. Climate change is a global problem with grave environmental, social, economic and political implications, the pope wrote. Many of the world’s poor live in areas particularly affected by phenomena related to global warming, and their subsistence depends on keeping Earth healthy. They have few resources to help them adapt to climate change, the pope said.

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[manicraven]

1. Yet, the pope still doesn't back birth control. Ridiculous.

[OKIsItJustMe]

2. He's not completely inflexible...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/11109080/Pope-Francis-adviser-hints-at-rethink-on-contraception-ban.html

[font face=Serif][font size=5]Pope Francis adviser hints at rethink on contraception ban[/font]

[font size=4]Cardinal Walter Kasper, a close influence on Pope Francis, says it is up to parents to decide how many children to have ahead of global gathering of Roman Catholic bishops to discuss the family[/font]

By John Bingham, Religious Affairs Editor
1:50PM BST 19 Sep 2014

[font size=3] A leading reformist Cardinal close to Pope Francis has hinted at the possibility of a reinterpretation of the Roman Catholic Church’s blanket ban on artificial contraception.

Cardinal Walter Kasper said it was “the responsibility of the parents” to decide how many children they should have.

He also said that so-called natural family planning, which is promoted by the Church as an alternative to contraception, also has an “artificial” element.

His comments in an interview with The Tablet, the Catholic weekly, are likely to reopen debate about one of the most contentious areas of Catholic teaching just weeks before a special global gathering of bishops in Rome to discuss the Church’s position on family matters.

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/20/pope-francis-birth-control_n_6510664.html

[font face=Serif][font size=5]Did Pope Francis Just Break New Ground On Birth Control?[/font]

01/20/2015 04:33 pm ET | Updated Jan 20, 2015

[font size=3](RNS) Pope Francis may have been elected by the Holy Spirit, but he seems made for the Age of Twitter.

A case in point were his latest remarks, in which he affirmed the Catholic Church’s ban on artificial contraception but derided the idea that “in order to be good Catholics we have to be like rabbits” and produce litters of kids.

“No,” he told reporters on his flight home from the Philippines. “Responsible parenthood.”

Moments earlier, Francis had signaled his approach to the vexed birth control issue when, with equally quotable verve, he said the contraception ban “does not mean that the Christian must make children in series.”

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2016/02/17/mexico-confirms-zika-virus-cases-in-pregnant-women-as-pope-francis-exits-the-country/

[font face=Serif][font size=5]Pope Francis suggests contraception could be permissible in Zika fight[/font]

By Sarah Pulliam Bailey and Michelle Boorstein February 18, 2016

[font size=3]Pope Francis told reporters Thursday that using artificial contraception may be morally acceptable in fighting the Zika virus, but called abortion another situation entirely, akin to “what the Mafia does.”

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Francis cited the decision taken by Pope Paul VI in the 1960s, according to a transcript, approving nuns in Belgian Congo using artificial contraception to prevent pregnancies because they were being systematically raped.

Abortion “is an evil in and of itself, but it is not a religious evil at its root, no? It’s a human evil,” Francis said. “On the other hand, avoiding pregnancy is not an absolute evil. In certain cases, as in this one (Zika), such as the one I mentioned of Blessed Paul VI, it was clear.”

Cathleen Kaveny, a moral theologian at Boston College, noted that previous popes had spoken of exceptions when contraception use was acceptable. However, she said, Francis was addressing the issue in an accessible way in the midst of a crisis, not speaking of a policy proposal. “He wasn’t talking about it as an incentive to change behavior,” the way, for example, Pope Benedict did in 2010 about male prostitutes using condoms to avoid spreading AIDS. Benedict had said such use might be possible as a first step towards helping a person become more moral.

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[Danascot]

3. You know you've crossed the line

when the Pope says your beliefs are medieval.