Posted on 06/23/2015 7:36:08 AM PDT by Academiadotorg
Although the media focused on Pope Francis’s views on the environment, they neglected to mention some of his other notable positions in the highly-publicized encyclical “Laudato Si.” For example, Pope Francis had this to say about abortion, in context of respecting the environment:
“Since everything is interrelated, concern for the protection of nature is also incompatible with the justification of abortion. How can we genuinely teach the importance of concern for other vulnerable beings, however troublesome or inconvenient they may be, if we fail to protect a human embryo, even when its presence is uncomfortable and creates difficulties? “If personal and social sensitivity towards the acceptance of the new life is lost, then other forms of acceptance that are valuable for society also wither away.”
Similarly, the Pope does not mince words attacking a current fad:
“The acceptance of our bodies as God’s gift is vital for welcoming and accepting the entire world as a gift from the Father and our common home, whereas thinking that we enjoy absolute power over our own bodies turns, often subtly, into thinking that we enjoy absolute power over creation…”
“Learning to accept our body, to care for it and to respect its fullest meaning, is an essential element of any genuine human ecology. Also, valuing one’s own body in its femininity or masculinity is necessary if I am going to be able to recognize myself in an encounter with someone who is different…”
“It is not a healthy attitude which would seek to ‘cancel out sexual difference because it no longer knows how to confront it.’”
Even on the issue of climate change, Pope Francis blasts the Left’s favorite policies of carbon credits, or cap-and-trade. Pope Francis stated:
“The strategy of buying and selling ‘carbon credits’ can lead to a new form of speculation which would not help reduce the emission of polluting gases worldwide. This system seems to provide a quick and easy solution under the guise of a certain commitment to the environment, but in no way does it allow for the radical change which present circumstances require. Rather, it may simply become a ploy which permits maintaining the excessive consumption of some countries and sectors.”
The Pope being against abortion isn’t exactly news. His statements regarding global warming are newsworthy.
So do you accept the Pope’s views on man-made global warming?
There’s a string of “he was misinterpreted” or “mistranslated” with every utterance.
That happens, but not all the time.
He’s pink, if not red. No other pope seemed to have these “problems.”
the media missed a few things when they covered the Pope’s encyclical, like his forceful restatement of Catholic doctrine—
trouble is, this Pope seems incapable of keeping his socialist tendencies out of his pronouncements...and therefore we constantly get mixed messages from him...solid doctrine combined with foolish fancy...
He is only against carbon credits because that is too much like Capitalism.
His call for a “global authority” to enforce carbon abatement is the real newsmaker in his letter IMO.
“Even on the issue of climate change, Pope Francis blasts the Left’s favorite policies of carbon credits, or cap-and-trade.”
Yes. He said that it was not far enough to the left.
And Mussolini made the trains run on time.
Point being, there is a socialist running the Catholic Church. No amount of window dressing is going to change that.
I doubt it is limited to this pope. I can't count how many times people have told me that Pius XII "accepted evolution as true". Or that Vatican II "accepts all religions as being equally valid" etc.
Hitler also had some worthwhile programs, but I can’t remember what they were.
Of course not.
AGW is a lie and a hoax.
A pope should not be lying to the world on such an important issue. AGW regulations will bring FAR MORE HARM and extreme poverty to the world.
No good can come by making more people believers in the man made Global Warming Scam.
*He is only against carbon credits because that is too much like Capitalism.*
I think he’s against carbon credits because it reminds people of when the popes sold writs of absolution...
“Pope Francis declares evolution and Big Bang theory are real and God is not ‘a magician with a magic wand’ “
..seems rather unpapal...
Francis has the “problem” every single time.
There is no misinterpretation of his stand on “global climate change” and his statements regarding gun manufacturers and the rail lines to WW2 concentration camps are not misinterpreted.
He’s contradicting himself and talking off the cuff, without thinking things through. He is not a person who takes thought seriously. He emotes.
You see “the problem” in action in post 13.
The first thing they want to do is pretend this part doesn’t exist:
“A very solid scientific consensus indicates that we are presently witnessing a disturbing warming of the climatic system. In recent decades this warming has been accompanied by a constant rise in the sea level and, it would appear, by an increase of extreme weather events, even if a scientifically determinable cause cannot be assigned to each particular phenomenon. Humanity is called to recognize the need for changes of lifestyle, production and consumption, in order to combat this warming or at least the human causes which produce or aggravate it [LS 23].”
Here is the appropriate response #21:
Climate Change is NOT “obviously happening”!
The Population Control crowd who are pushing this agenda don’t even have the integrity to be embarrassed about changing the name from “Global Warming” after eighteen years of proof there is none!
This is all about shutting down capitalism, energy development, industry, and personal freedom.
There are selfish people who don’t want the third world countries developing energy or economic independence for fear they’ll wise up and demand control of their own natural resources.
I don’t for a minute suggest the Pope shares this position, but by supporting the fraud of man-made climate change, he is unwittingly supporting a political agenda against his stated interest in helping the truly needy.
Such as....
Calling out Air Conditioning as a self destructive thing...
"People may well have a growing ecological sensitivity but it has not succeeded in changing their harmful habits of consumption which, rather than decreasing, appear to be growing all the more. A simple example is the increasing use and power of air-conditioning. The markets, which immediately benefit from sales, stimulate ever greater demand. An outsider looking at our world would be amazed at such behaviour, which at times appears self-destructive.(55)"
or
"Although it is true that we Christians have at times incorrectly interpreted the Scriptures, nowadays we must forcefully reject the notion that our being created in God’s image and given dominion over the earth justifies absolute domination over other creatures. (67)"
I would love to know when "we Christians" have incorrectly interpreted the Scriptures. As the head of the Catholic Church, is he referring to the Church? Or what?
And then this....
The laws found in the Bible dwell on relationships, not only among individuals but also with other living beings. “You shall not see your brother’s donkey or his ox fallen down by the way and withhold your help… If you chance to come upon a bird’s nest in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs and the mother sitting upon the young or upon the eggs; you shall not take the mother with the young” (Dt 22:4, 6). Along these same lines, rest on the seventh day is meant not only for human beings, but also so “that your ox and your donkey may have rest” (Ex 23:12). Clearly, the Bible has no place for a tyrannical anthropocentrism unconcerned for other creatures. (68)
Did he purposely not quote the verse in the middle? Namely "5 A woman must not wear men’s clothing, nor a man wear women’s clothing, for the Lord your God detests anyone who does this."??
There are some very Pantheistic approaches in this encyclical such as:
The ultimate purpose of other creatures is not to be found in us. Rather, all creatures are moving forward with us and through us towards a common point of arrival, which is God, in that transcendent fullness where the risen Christ embraces and illumines all things. Human beings, endowed with intelligence and love, and drawn by the fullness of Christ, are called to lead all creatures back to their Creator. (83)
Am I supposed to lead my dog to the pearly gates? How do I know when my dog sins?
And my favorite doozy....
Here I would reiterate that “God has joined us so closely to the world around us that we can feel the desertification of the soil almost as a physical ailment, and the extinction of a species as a painful disfigurement”. (89)
I am supposed to "feel" desertification of the soil? Huh??
While there are nuggets of goodness in line with the teachings of the Catholic Church, there is a TON that is questionable at best and further cements this Pope as a Peronista who is more concerned with feelings than salvation.
I pray for him daily but I can't express how dismayed and disappointed I am in this Pope.
Shortly after this, he then calls out weapons manufacturers as not being Christian AND AT THE SAME TIME wonders why the Allies didn't bomb the rail lines to Auchwitz!!
As soon as the Pope STOPS using all carbon based fuels and STOPS having armed guards, then maybe I'll actually start to rebuild my trust. Until then, this encyclical and his hiring of Athiests and activists as advisors and his kitschy off the cuff comments are detrimental to the faith and are being used by those who HATE the Catholic Church and Jesus Christ to their benefit.
As a practicing Roman Catholic I feel I need to remind everyone that this institution has had all kinds of bad popes and when they forget the admonition “My Kingdom Is Not If This World” it gets into all sorts of trouble. But survives.
These meandering homilys of this pope on temporal matters diffuse any theologic message Pope Francis offers. Snowballs should be thrown at those pointy hat supporters of his as well as opposition clearly expressed to those meanderings on any visit Francis may make here.
Folks, dig the lyrics to Lennon's "Imagine":
"Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people living for today
Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion, too
Imagine all the people living life in peace
Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people sharing all the world
You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one"
Ah, the Utopian dreams of leftist poets, peasants and popes.....
Leni
Then too, the church historically has had little interest in protecting individual freedom, seeing liberty as seductive to selfishness and generally inimical to the communal common good.
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