Pope Blames Markets for Environment’s Ills

Wall Street Journal ^ | June 18, 2015 | Francis X. Rocca

[expat_panama]

ROME— Pope Francis in his much-awaited encyclical on the environment offered a broad and uncompromising indictment of the global market economy, accusing it of plundering the Earth at the expense of the poor and of future generations.

In passionate language, the pontiff attributed global warming to human activity, blamed special interests for holding back policy responses and said the global North owes the South “an ecological debt.”

The 183-page document, which Pope Francis addresses to “every person living on this planet,” includes pointed critiques of globalization and consumerism,...

[snip]

“Economic powers continue to justify the current global system where priority tends to be given to speculation and the pursuit of financial gain,” he writes. “As a result, whatever is fragile, like the environment, is defenseless before the interests of the deified market, which become the only rule.”

The Vatican published the document, titled “Laudato Si” (“Be praised”), on Thursday. The official release came three days after the online publication of a leaked version by an Italian magazine.

[snip]

The encyclical had been of enormous advance interest, especially after Pope Francis said he hoped it would make a contribution to an international environmental summit this autumn. Several oil companies offered their input to the Vatican office tasked with drafting the document.

Samuel Gregg, a Catholic who serves as director of research for the Acton Institute, a conservative ecumenical think tank that advocates for a free market, took exception to the pope’s economic premises, saying Pope Francis has “significant blind spots” with regard to market economies.

“When you read through the text, you find the free market, and finance in particular, is identified more or less as responsible for many environmental problems,” Dr. Gregg said. “It’s almost a subterranean theme of the encyclical.…In many respects, it’s a caricature of market economies.”

[Stosh]

Which of course is why East Germany, the old Soviet Union and mainland China are so environmentally pristine.

[The_Media_never_lie]

ROME— Pope Francis in his much-awaited encyclical on the environment offered a broad and uncompromising indictment of the global market economy, accusing it of plundering the Earth at the expense of the poor and of future generations.

If the Pope would sell off all the Vatican City assets, and donate them to the poor, wouldn't the poor be better off? Maybe he should do this first, then he would have the moral high ground to criticize capitalism.

[Maceman]

If you are against free markets, you are against individual liberty.

If you are against liberty, you lose all claim to being one of the good guys.

[Torahman]

He’s a Communist. The Christianity is just window dressing.

[bert]

The pope op[poses any thing or any body that stands in the way of the Church to control the minds, bodies and lives of those he must control to rule the earth

He wants to return to the days prey Henry VIII where he waqs the man.... the ruler of all, the controller of all things

Beware the Vatican....... it is at root, evil

[Drango]

Pope needs to clean up his own house before he lectures others.

[Bobalu]

The Church Of Rome has a pinko doofus as pope.

I long for the days of John Paul II.

[Leep]

accusing it of plundering the Earth at the expense of the poor and of future generations.

---

I support plundering the earth.

[Vaquero]

So he’s a Marxist and a treehugger?

Wait till the Marxists take over....the first thing to go? The Church

[expat_panama]

Here's a link to the actual encyclical so we can check to see what the Pope actually said, but in the meantime we got the Post saying that everything's Wall Street's fault in Pope Francis vs. Wall Street

Meanwhile, yesterday saw both metals and stocks flat and today futures got metals up +0.41% and stocks down -0.22%.  Life goes on...

[Opinionated Blowhard]

In passionate language, the pontiff attributed global warming to human activity

I guess by this standard, the crazy person who screams nonsense while locked up in a lunatic asylum is using "passionate language." Both are equally nonsensical and hysterical.

[from occupied ga]

The pope has chosen deliberate ignorance in the furtherance of the failed cause of socialism. It is the age of incompetence. We have and affirmative action president, a communist pope, and numerous other public officials (like a Baltimore mayor) who choose to turn their backs on reality to push their own particular fantasies.

“The most common of all follies is to believe passionately in the palpably not true. It is the chief occupation of mankind.” -- H. L. Mencken

[silverleaf]

Maybe the northern hemisphere should start feeding Africa

Oh and discovering mass producing and sending vaccines and medicine for AIDS malaria and insecticides

And technical and medical aid workers!

Oh, wait.....

[outofsalt]

Commienus vobiscum.

[pieceofthepuzzle]

If the Pope, or anyone else wants to see how ‘market economies’ stack up against socialism/communism with regards the environment, just look at the environmental records of the old USSR, or for that matter any totalitarian leftist regime. Regarding the southern countries, they have created a lot of their own issues - including marked deforestation in Argentina and many other countries in South America. If one believes that CO2 is the major driver of climate, then they should also consider that it is estimated that:

“By most accounts, deforestation in tropical rainforests adds more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere than the sum total of cars and trucks on the world’s roads.” http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/deforestation-and-global-warming/

There's a lot more to say about this..

[Daveinyork]

He might as well just come out and say that human beings cannot be trusted with freedom.

[rbg81]

Which of course is why East Germany, the old Soviet Union and mainland China are so environmentally pristine.

---

Exactly. When you have unelected, dictatorial bureaucrats making decisions, the environment will take a much bigger beating. A lot of useful idiots out there just blindly assume that a Socialist/Communist/Marxist country will be more environmentally friendly—and the Pope is one of them.

[circlecity]

This guy is a flat out communist who wants to turn the Catholic church into the propaganda arm of the elite global redistributionists.

[Truth29]

Maybe the Pope would like a return to the dark ages, with some plague thrown in to reduce the human population which afflicts mother Gaia? What the Pope advocates will result in the death of millions an the loss of freedom for everyone left after the purges.