To Catholics - The Pope and Climate Change

Has Pope Francis' statements and positions on climate change had any impact on your views?

Amadeus said:

Has Pope Francis' statements and positions on climate change had any impact on your views?

Click to expand...

No - but I do credit him with strongly opposing carbon taxes and carbon trading schemes even though you don't hear it mentioned very often by the climate change pimps and their friends in the media.

CanadaJohn said:

No - but I do credit him with strongly opposing carbon taxes and carbon trading schemes even though you don't hear it mentioned very often by the climate change pimps and their friends in the media.

Click to expand...

Why are you a Catholic if you do not view the Pope as a moral authority?

I'm not Carholic but I do respect the pope as a Christian thinker.

It does open my heart a bit to the discussion of climate change, where before I just laughed at it. I think mankind does have an obligation to care for this world...not just carbon emissions (though certainly that too) but all sorts of environmental pursuits.

Good lord, first I change my mind on monetary policy and go more to the left, then I change my mind on gay marriage, and now I'm opening up to climate change.

I might be turning in to a damn liberal. Well...nah.

Amadeus said:

Has Pope Francis' statements and positions on climate change had any impact on your views?

Click to expand...

I'll respond in part as a cultural Catholic (i.e. I'm not a believer, but rather grew up in it), and part as interest of intellectual history. No, but I respect it as another wing of the environmentalist credo. A substantial narrative within a chunk of history for the environmentalist movement has been Christians feeling that an obedience and respect of God's creation translated to "taking care" of the planet in a manner complimentary to secular environmentalism.

Amadeus said:

Why are you a Catholic if you do not view the Pope as a moral authority?

Click to expand...

Despite the loaded assumptions of this statement, most American Catholics should perhaps ask themselves the same. American Catholics are far more democratic and liberal than their Western and Eastern European counterparts, and thus odd ducks. More influenced by 18th and 19th century American democratic protestantism, they continuously find themselves culturally torn in ways that Europeans may not. Likewise by about the mid to late 20th century, European Catholicism had to grapple with the substantial influence Marxism and Christian Socialism found in Latin and Central America.

I did find one aspect of the Pope's encyclical interesting, and it was briefly brought-up in another thread here, where the point was completely missed.

The Pope drew similarities between his proclamation on climate change and The Church's long-standing doctrine against abortion, citing that both are in defense of (human) life - which is a very common Roman Catholic theme, and couched in those terms it would seem to act as the logical/theological opening to interject the Pope & The Church into a concern (climate change) that would not otherwise appear theological at all.

Amadeus said:

Has Pope Francis' statements and positions on climate change had any impact on your views?

Click to expand...

Not really. :shrug:

The Pope has simply outlined his personal and political opinions, and tried to place them within context of positions which the Church had already, previously, held. He hasn't changed anything regarding matters of actual doctrine.

This isn't to imply that he isn't correct, of course, in saying that it is "immoral" to simply go out of one's way to destroy the environment, or blindly ignore the signs of an impending ecological collapse. It absolutely is, for a number of theological, pragmatic, and humanitarian reasons.

However, by the same token, I don't think anyone is actually proposing that we not make earnest attempts to clean up industry, or at least somewhat mitigate the negative effects of human activity upon the environment. Some of us simply disagree upon the exact extent to which such measures are justified or necessary. It also should not be forgotten that it's entirely possible that the severity of the threat posed by anthropogenic warming might very well be overstated.

Either way, there's quite a bit of wiggle room here for even a devout Catholic to politely, and respectfully, disagree with many of the sentiments the Pope has expressed. As I just pointed out, after all, there is really nothing saying that the Pope - or the popular Left's - opinion of or approach to the issue of environmentalism and climate change is necessarily the correct one. There's more than one way to "skin" this particular cat.

I don't care much for the Church or Catholicism in general, which I say as a former Catholic, but I'm happy that the Pope took this official stance. If only a fraction of the billion or so followers listen to him then maybe there could be some impact.

It's pretty much too late though, our planet is screwed and humans are not going to change.

Amadeus said:

Why are you a Catholic if you do not view the Pope as a moral authority?

Click to expand...

I'm not a religious person, although I was raised Catholic.

As I've said before, when the Pope divests the Church of all its gold, jewels, antiquities and treasures, donates the proceeds to those the Church has harmed, and voes himself and the entire clergy to poverty, I may begin to listen to him on matters of economics and finance.

CanadaJohn said:

I'm not a religious person, although I was raised Catholic.

As I've said before, when the Pope divests the Church of all its gold, jewels, antiquities and treasures, donates the proceeds to those the Church has harmed, and voes himself and the entire clergy to poverty, I may begin to listen to him on matters of economics and finance.

Click to expand...

Climate change isn't economics and finance. He is speaking about a moral issue, which befits his station within the Catholic church.

Fiddytree said:

I'll respond in part as a cultural Catholic (i.e. I'm not a believer, but rather grew up in it), and part as interest of intellectual history. No, but I respect it as another wing of the environmentalist credo. A substantial narrative within a chunk of history for the environmentalist movement has been Christians feeling that an obedience and respect of God's creation translated to "taking care" of the planet in a manner complimentary to secular environmentalism.

Click to expand...

I grew up as an Episcopalian, and the beloved phrase is "faithful stewards of God's bounty." That has stuck with me all my life and strongly influenced my behavior.

Amadeus said:

Climate change isn't economics and finance. He is speaking about a moral issue, which befits his station within the Catholic church.

Click to expand...

Climate change, as positioned by socialists like the Pope, is all about finance and economics and the desire to transfer wealth from first world nations to third world nations and has zero to do with climate. Unless he speaks truthfully about that, he holds no moral high ground at all, regardless of what position he holds. His position simply reflects what a hundred or so other religious elitists have bestowed upon him. Let them be the first to transfer all their wealth to third world nations - then we can talk.

CanadaJohn said:

Climate change, as positioned by socialists like the Pope, is all about finance and economics and the desire to transfer wealth from first world nations to third world nations and has zero to do with climate.

Click to expand...

Proof?

I don't know what to say about the Pope's stance on climate change - the issue is too politicized, now.
I think, seeing the environmental terrorists, Greenpeace, alongside the same fence as the Pope is just too jarring for me.
Somehow, it still looks more like politicking to me.

But I do believe that we, as stewards, have a duty to behave responsibly towards this world.