Posted on 05/09/2015 7:18:14 PM PDT by ebb tide
One of the major goals of the pagan, anti-life ecology movement was to get the Church and religious leaders committed to the cause of environmentalism. In this, the Green Movement succeeded. We will look at a central 1986 event at Assisi that was crucial to getting the Catholic Church involved.
The Greening of Religion
The first pan-religious event at Assisi was not Pope John Paul II’s prayer meeting for peace on October 27, 1986, but the 25th Anniversary of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) starting on September 26th, the previous month of the same year. At a speech delivered to a National Press Club (NPC) Luncheon in Washington, May 18, 1990, England’s Prince Philip of Edinburgh (husband of Queen Elizabeth), who was then President of the WWF, recounted the interfaith event. He explained that 1986 was the 25th anniversary of the founding of the WWF. Therefore, he said, “it was decided that Assisi would be the most appropriate place for the anniversary celebrations”, especially since St. Francis is now considered patron saint of ecology. Prince Philip continued,
“... we suggested to the Minister General of the Order of the Friars Minor Conventional ... that he might invite leaders from the other four major religions, that’s the Jewish, the Muslim, the Hindu and the Buddhist, to meet together in Assisi to discuss among themselves whether there was a religious aspect to the conservation of nature and what their scriptures individually have to say about the relationship with humanity to the natural world.”
Here is a crucial point. We see Prince Philip explaining that the WWF deemed it vital to involve the world’s religions with ecology. This was considered necessary for two reasons:
1) For the eco/environmental program to be successful, it needed the religions of the world to invest it with some sort of “spiritual imperative”; 2) Religious leaders can then influence their own people, especially in backward countries with high illiteracy, to the cause of ecology and environmentalism. Prince Philip explained, “In many parts of the world, the only person with influence is the local religious leader.”[1]
This is similar to Communist tactics wherein the Communists used religion as a vehicle to promote their own revolutionary principles, but couched in religious trappings (such as Liberation Theology, or the leftist rhetoric that comes from diocesan “Justice and Peace” groups). Likewise, the eco/environmentalists are using the world’s religions as a means to promote their own pagan, environmentalist agenda. At the conclusion of WWF’s meeting at Assisi (Sept. 29, 1986), Prince Philip proclaimed the summit a success:
“I believe that today ... a new and powerful alliance has been forged between the forces of religion and the forces of conservation ... the spiritual leaders have learned that the natural world of creation cannot be saved without their active involvement.”[2]
Four years later, at the 1990 NPC Luncheon, Prince Philip recounted the interfaith ritual that crowned the anniversary’s events:
“At the end of the proceedings at Assisi, we all repaired to the basilica for an interfaith celebration ... Everyone was called to prayer by a Muslim muezzin in one of the towers of this Christian cathedral, and the president of the World Jewish Congress blew his ram’s horn at the door. He didn’t do it inside, but just outside. The Hindus did a dance inside ... At the end of it the declarations on religion and nature were all blessed.”[3]
This interfaith ritual places the one and true Catholic Faith on the same level as counterfeit systems, something the Catholic Church has always forbidden in its entire history, prior to the modernist updates of Vatican II. Such a pan-religious gathering is a kind of blasphemy, made unspeakably worse by the fact that it takes place in a Catholic Cathedral with the blessing of the highest authorities of the Franciscan order. In 1918, Belgium’s Cardinal Mercier wrote a pastoral letter entitled “The Lesson of Events” in which he said that World War I, more than anything else, was a punishment for states and governments placing the one true Church of Jesus Christ on the same level as false creeds. Mercier wrote, “In the name of the Gospel, and in the light of the Encyclicals of the last four Popes, Gregory XVI, Pius IX, Leo XIII, and Pius X, I do not hesitate to affirm that this indifference to religion which puts on the same level the religion of divine origin and the religions invented by men in order to include them in the same skepticism is the blasphemy which calls down chastisement on society far more than the sins of individuals and families.” [4] This applies even more forcefully when Catholic leaders place “on the same level the religion of divine origin and the religions invented by men”, as was the case in the World Wildlife Fund’s event. In the name of addressing nature’s punishment for man’s alleged abuse of the environment, our Church leaders provoke God’s punishment for the objective blasphemy of these interfaith events. Regarding the 1986 WWF interfaith extravaganza, Reuters provided a more detailed description of the pagan aberrations enacted within this Catholic basilica at the time:
“After welcoming ceremonies at the Basilica, Yamina Krishnamurti, one of India’s best known temple dancers, performed a Hindu dance of creation with her red and gold sari and bangles swaying to the rhythm of live sitar music ...
“Four Buddhist monks dressed in Saffron and wearing bright yellow plumes chanted celebratory verses in deep monotone in front of the frescoes by Italian artist, Giotto.
“Toward the end of the service, a Zambian choir sang the ‘Canticle of the Creatures’ as banner holders representing all five faiths and the WWF lined up to leave the basilica.”[5]
Though conserving nature seems a noble crusade, today’s environmentalist movement has a darker agenda, including the effort to expunge as many human beings from the planet as possible through the devices of population control (i.e. abortion, sterilization, euthanasia, disease, etc.). We also see it coming from the mouth of WWF’s Prince Philip. Regarding “expunging as many human beings from the planet as possible”, Prince Philip makes no secret of the anti-human, anti-family tenets of ecology’s pagan creed. At the NPC luncheon, the Prince harnessed grand applause with the statement:
“I’m old enough to be able to say that those of you who are still at breeding age ought to be a little careful about how many you breed.”
Perhaps he would now tell Catholics they should not “breed like rabbits.” The World Wildlife Fund itself is anti-human in its policies, and definitely subscribes to the “people are pollution” falsehood. One of WWF’s annual reports stated “increasing [human] population causes a drain on natural resources, which is geometric, not arithmetic... Science cannot be expected to supplant the vital processes of nature.”[6] In 1989, WWF’s Prince Philip laid bare even further the warped philosophy of contemporary ecology. He said that were he to be reincarnated, he would wish to return as a “killer virus to lower human population levels.”[7] Tragically, these anti-life tenets did not prevent the WWF from receiving Rome’s ecumenical embrace. On April 10, 1990, this same Prince Philip – who said he wants to return as a killer virus to wipe out human population levels – met with Pope John Paul II at the Vatican. At the day’s end, Prince Philip announced to the press ,“From tomorrow, the WWF and the Catholic Church will cooperate together to safeguard nature.”[8] The Catholic Church – the one and only true Church of Christ - is thus co-opted to serve an anti-human agenda. This is one of the great drawbacks of the Vatican II emphasis on dialogue with the world. Rather than Christ’s Church being the moral leader, it is more often than not the world that sets the agenda, and simpering Churchmen fall over each other trying to prove to the world that the Church is “relevant,” and make colossal fools of themselves in the process. The result: they derail the Church from its true mission for the salvation of souls, and even become a tool in the hands of the enemy.
Government Intrusion and Population Control
We will repeat some of what was noted in our previous write-up on how global warming hysterics leads people to accept a Soviet-styled government control over the law-abiding citizen. Columnist Richard Littlejohn, writing in the London Daily Mail, said, “I doubt there is a single country on earth where the entire political class has so completely taken leave of its senses over alleged global warming. Here in Britain, it has been seized upon as an exciting new weapon with which to inflict more taxes, fines and regulations on us.”[9] In the same vein, British columnist Mark Steyn noted “It’s fascinating to observe how almost any old totalitarian racket becomes respectable once its cloaked in enviro-hooey. For example, restrictions on freedom of movement were previously the mark of the Soviet Union. But in Britain, they’re proposing limits on your right to take airline flights to other countries – all in the name of ‘environmental responsibility’ and fighting Climate Change – and everyone thinks it’s a great idea”.[10] The true face of this monstrous climate change movement continues to reveal itself, particularly in the area of population control. In the December 8, 2009 edition of The Financial Post, a national newspaper in Canada, Diane Francis urged the whole world “to adopt China’s one-child policy” of contraception and forced abortion, in order to save the planet from alleged overpopulation. She called upon those meeting at the UN Climate summit in Copenhagen to propose such a plan.[11] It is clear from these quotes, and the many quotes we cited in the past,[12] that population control is a central tenet of environmentalism. Population control – abortion and contraception – is contrary to Divine Law and natural law. These are mortal sins that send souls to hell. Yet despite today’s ecology being hopelessly fastened to these wicked anti-God tenets, our own US bishops, and bishops throughout the world, have jumped onto the ecology bandwagon. In fact, we have seen this “greening” of the Church expand since 1986, culminating in a recent initiative by the American Catholic bishops, as well as Pope Francis’ much discussed “Ecology Encyclical” scheduled for release in June or July.
Catholic Climate Covenant
In April 2009, the United States Conference of Bishops launched what they call the “Catholic Climate Covenant”, and the “Catholic Coalition on Climate Change” initiatives. The purpose of these groups is to heighten awareness among Catholics to the alleged devastation to the earth caused by man-made global warming, and to urge Catholics to take the “St. Francis Pledge to Protect Creation and the Poor.” The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops thus follows the libretto written for them by the anti-life World Wildlife Fund. The WWF deemed it necessary to harness religious leaders in the cause of ecology – to be ambassadors of environmentalism -- so that the religious leaders can then give environmentalism a “spiritual dimension”. This is exactly what we find with new “Catholic Climate Covenant” initiative. At its launch, this group produced a short video posted on its website called “Who is Under Your Carbon Footprint?” The imagery the video invokes is as follows: if you use too much energy, drive too big a car, heat too big a house, you are creating a massive carbon footprint that will accelerate climate change, which will cause even more suffering and death among the poor. In the video soundtrack, a soft-spoken woman narrates in worried tone:
“Who’s under your carbon footprint? Using too much energy; driving bigger cars; heating bigger houses; using more hot water; it all means more greenhouse gases; and a bigger carbon footprint; and that means adding to the problem of climate change. More heat! More drought, more floods; more storms; more joblessness. So who’s getting stepped on? Who is under your carbon footprint? It is the poor who most directly bear the brunt of environmental degradation…”[13]
The video adds the note of urgency: the longer we wait to reduce our carbon footprint, the more the poor will live in degradation, though the video never explains how. Then, of course, we are reminded the Catholic’s duty to the poor. The implication is clear: if we want to live according to our Catholic duty before God, we must change our lives, get smaller cars, use less hot water, get a smaller house, use less energy, adopt a “green” mindset, so that we don’t contribute to the greenhouse gases causes global warming, and makes life miserable for the poor. This is appalling, coming from a so-called Catholic coalition, since the Catholic’s first duty is to tell the truth! But as documented in our “Who am I to Judge Your Carbon Footprint?” (and other places), there is no proven connection between human activity and so-called “greenhouse gasses” allegedly causing global warming. There is not even a true consensus among scientists that the earth is getting warmer.[14] And among those who believe the earth is getting warming, there is no true consensus that the warming is man-made, or that this slight warming is going to damage the earth in any way. In fact, even Greenpeace co-founder Patrick Moore, Ph.D., does not insist climate change is a settled science. World Net Daily writes, “More has been a leader in international environmentalism for more than 40 years. He now calls himself a climate skeptic. Why? He followed the [genuine] science.”[15] But this doesn’t stop the Climate Change Covenant from making ridiculous and irresponsible claims about man’s supposed guilt regarding global warming. What’s worse, there are at least numerous different national Catholic organizations who have signed on to this Catholic Coalition on Climate Change, including; • The United States Council of Catholic Bishops; • Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities • Catholic Charities USA • Catholic Relief Services • Catholic Health Association • The USCCB Department of Justice, Peace and Human Development • National Federation of Catholic Youth Ministry • Leadership Conference of Women Religions • National Catholic Education Association Along with these, other Catholic groups connected to the “Catholic Climate Covenant” include the National Federation of Priests Councils, Woodstock Theological Center, National Diocesan Institute of Continuing Education, the list goes on. The time and energy focused on climate change is a massive distraction from the Church’s true mission, which is primarily the salvation of souls, and the secondarily, the betterment of the Common Good. The true Common Good, according to Scholastic understanding, includes civic friendship, peace, order, freedom, love of law, and a well-informed public opinion.[16] Are the bishops and Vatican leaders contributing to a “well-informed public opinion” by promoting the lies of global warming hysteria? By doing so, the bishops become cooperators in a campaign of deceit, and this deceit is aimed at all age levels, even school children. In what has been called an “unprecedented initiative”, all of the Catholic schools in the United States – 19,000 schools – received so-called “educational” and promotional materials in English and Spanish on the second week of April this year, which asked students and parents to become part of the Catholic Climate Change program, thus further indoctrinating children into climate change hysterics. Parishes were also asked to consider addressing environmental themes in their liturgies prior to Earth Day.[17] This is not only a liturgical abuse, but it ignores the anti-Christian principles on which Earth Day was founded. As The Pasadena Star News noted, Senator Gaylord Nelson, who spearheaded the first Earth Day set up Earth Day as an “anti-pollution, anti litter, population-control” campaign.[18] Tragically, the “greening” of the Church is what we see not only from the world’s bishops, but from the highest echelons of the Vatican. Dan Misleh, executive director of the Catholic Climate Covenant, told Crux news that in the United States, Pope Francis’ Eco-Encyclical “will be accompanied by a 12-week campaign, now being prepared by a committee of Catholic bishops, to raise the issue of climate change and environmental stewardship in sermons, homilies, news media interviews, and letters to newspaper editors.”[19]
Scandalous Vatican Encounter
The anti-life fabric of today’s ecology movement was on display again at the recent Vatican conference to promote the new encyclical. The event featured two major abortion and population control proponents. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and Jeffrey Sachs, director of earth Institute of Columbia, both met with Pope Francis and his advisors over the past few days. Pro-life author Wendy Wright explained, “Ban Ki-moon has been a proponent of abortion at the UN, going so far as promoting it in conflict areas where abortion is illegal. Sachs is a proponents of population control and fought to get ‘reproductive health’ – used to promote abortion – included in the Millennium Development Goals.” The pro-abortion Ban Ki-moon, echoing Prince Phillip’s strategy for harnessing religious groups to the cause of ecology, appears ecstatic over the Pope’s upcoming encyclical: “It will convey to the world that protecting our environment is an urgent moral imperative and a sacred duty for all people of faith and people of conscience.” Ban Ki-moon exhorts religious leaders to rally their people in favor of the UN conference on climate change to be held this December in Paris. Directing his words to religious leaders, he said, “It is critically important that the people and their leaders hear your strong moral voice in the coming months.” [20] We witness the fulfillment of the strategy laid out by the anti-life World Wildlife fund to recruit religious leaders to the cause of ecology. Again, the two reasons:
1) For the eco/environmental program to be successful, it needed the religions of the world to invest it with some sort of “spiritual imperative”; 2) Religious leaders can then influence their own people, especially in backward countries with high illiteracy, to the cause of ecology and environmentalism. Prince Philip explained, “In many parts of the world, the only person with influence is the local religious leader.”
This is the tragedy now played out by Pope Francis and his eco-prelates. They follow the script written for them by globalist, anti-life forces. The result will be even more population control, more abortion, increased government control of energy, and the possible crippling of legitimate industry by means of excessive environmental regulations, all of which will be devastating to the population, and especially to the poor. Yet Papa Bergoglio and his Vati-Greens, basking in the praise of pro-eco mass media, are either too blind or too inebriated by Modernism to recognize they dance to the strings of wicked puppet masters. In our next installment, we will examine how Divine Revelation itself is now re-scripted to the cause of neo-pagan ecology. We will also gather a preview of Francis’ encyclical.
[1] “Conservationists Seek Help of World Religions”, Christian Science Monitor, Oct. 23, 1986. [2] “Wildlife Fund Marks 25 Years with Ecumenical Service at Assisi”, Alan Baldwin, Reuters News Service, Sept. 29, 1986. [3] Transcript of Prince Philip’s Address to National Press Club, Federal News Service, May 18, 1990. [4] . Quote taken from The Kingship of Christ and Organized Naturalism, Fr. Denis Fahey (Regina Publications, June, 1943), p. 36. Footnoted as cited from Cardinal Mercier’s Pastoral Letter, 1918, The Lesson of Events. (Emphasis added). [5] “Wildlife Fund Marks 25 Years with Ecumenical Service at Assisi,” Reuters, Sept. 29, 1986. [6] Cited from Trashing the Planet, Dixy Lee Ray with Lou Guzzo, (Regnery, Washington, 1990) p. 169. [7] Ibid. [emphasis added]. [8] “Pope and Prince Philip Join Forces to Save Nature,” Reuters, April 10, 1990. [9] Red Hot Lies: How Global Warming Alarmists Use Threats, Fraud, and Deception to Keep You Misinformed, Chrisopher C. Horner, [Washington: Regnery, 2008], p. 209. [10] “People Who Don’t Need People”, Mark Steyn, National Review Online’s The Corner, Sept. 7, 2007. [11] “The Real Inconvenient Truth: The Whole World Needs to Adopt China’s One Child Policy”, Diane Francis, Financial Post, December 8, 2009. [12] “Who am I to Judge your Carbon Footprint?”, J. Vennari, Feb., 2015, Catholic Family News, . [13] Homepage: www.catholicclimatecovenant.org [14] See BBC report quoted earlier, “What Happened to Global Warming?” See also, “Hiding Evidence of Global Cooling”, The Washington Times, November 24, 2009. [15] “Climate Change and the ‘Settled Science’ Bullies,” Ronald J. Rychiak, World Net Daily, April 20, 2015. [16] “The Function of Civil Authority”, Raphael Waters, Ph.D., Catholic Family News, December 2009. [Reprint RP012-1273 available from CFN for $2.00 post-paid.] [17] “New Climate Initiative Set to Launch”, Jerry Filteau, National Catholic Reporter, April 17, 2009.. [18] “For Earth Day, the Issues Change but the Spirit Remains”, Pasadena Star-News, April 21, 2009. [19] “Pope Steps Up Campaign on Climate Change to Conservative Alarm,” Crux, April 28, 2015. [20] “Vatican Conference Criticized for Backing Abortion and Population Control Politics,” Wendy Wright, C-Fam, May 8, 2015.
“I’m old enough to be able to say that those of you who are still at breeding age ought to be a little careful about how many you breed.”
Perhaps he would now tell Catholics they should not “breed like rabbits.”
If only the Pope believed in the Bible: the Great Flood, the famines, the plagues, the miracle of the sun at Fatima, etc. he would have never hitched his wagon to the satanic U.N.
Thanks for sharing this post. I did not realize what had happened just prior to JPII's blasphemous interfaith prayers at Assisi. Vatican II promotes a different, non-Catholic religion and all of the post Vatican II popes have shared in its unbridled promotion.
"Simpering Churchmen" posing as sophisticated intellectuals, colluding with the New World Order, being manipulated by pseudo-scientists, and abdicating their moral responsibilities in the process. Such a ghastly display.
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