Posted on 12/30/2014 5:11:40 PM PST by SeekAndFind
Pope Francis continues his groundbreaking progressive approach to Catholicism with plans to expand next year on one of his favorite causes: climate change and protecting the environment. The pope is expected to make climate change a large part of his leadership efforts throughout 2015, according to ThinkProgress.org, using the papacy to encourage the 1.2 billion Catholics to protect the environment as “God’s creation.”
Pope Francis has even gone as far as to call the destruction of the rainforest a sin, and cautioned Catholics and non-Catholics alike that protecting the environment is a sacred matter, going as far as back as his inaugural mass in 2013.
“The vocation of being a ‘protector,’ however, is not just something involving us Christians alone; it also has a prior dimension which is simply human, involving everyone. It means protecting all creation, the beauty of the created world, as the Book of Genesis tells us and as Saint Francis of Assisi showed us. It means respecting each of God’s creatures and respecting the environment in which we live.”
Under Pope Francis’ leadership in 2014, the Catholic Church held a five-day summit with scientists and experts on the environment, and the Pope already has plans in place to address the New York general assembly next September regarding climate change and general environmental issues. Pope Francis will also attend The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change global meeting in Paris at the end of 2015.
Taking further action related to the operations of the Catholic Church, the pope will be drafting a formal letter to all Bishops of the Roman Catholic Church, called an encyclical, specifically addressing climate change.
Dan Misleh, director of the Catholic climate covenant, told The Guardian these letters are rare and uses Pope Francis’ highest level of authority in creating the document, expected to be somewhere around 50-60 pages long. But the pope can expect some push-back from other church members as well as evangelical groups and even member of Congress.
“There will always be 5-10 percent of people who will take offense,” Misleh told The Guardian. “They are very vocal and have political clout. This encyclical will threaten some people and bring joy to others. The arguments are around economics and science rather than morality.”
Pope Francis has distinguished himself from previous popes in his progressive views on such topics as evolution, homosexuality, and politics within the Vatican. These views, as well as the pope’s humility and his example of leading a far less lavish lifestyle than previous popes, have made him very popular among non-Catholics as well as members of his own church.
Do you agree with Pope Francis that harming the environment is a “sin?”
Pope is going to bed with some mighty evil people.
This is not exactly genuflecting to Al Gore.
This will cause a massive evacuation of the church, which is supposed to look after the spiritual wellbeing, not getting into political drama.
Dang, I wish somebody had kept him from watching that stupid Noah movie!
Also, if he’s so convinced that possibly one degree of warming is so concerning, I’d like to ask him why he thinks God has allowed so much warming AND cooling since the creation?
“Do you agree with Pope Francis that harming the environment is a sin?”
the problem is the pope is attempting to define sin, rather than God defining it.
The definition from God comes from Genesis:
“26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.
30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.”
Because this pope is a mighty evil person. We were told we’d know them by their fruits afterall.
this pope guy is screwing up big time but in the same way devote libs worship their anointed ones devote catholics will stick by him no matter what foolishness come out of his mouth
I have no problem believing in God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit. It’s always my fellow man that gives me problems.
The Obama visit.
It’s hard to know what is wishful thinking and what is factual reporting... on the part of the news agency. Francis has gotten this kind of news treatment before and some of it was just vapor.
Because the Pontiff is famous for, well, pontificating, folks wants to portray him as pontificating in their direction.
I CAN say I hope he doesn’t take modern AGW theories as gospel. That would get a furious thing going.
Francis' "progressive views on evolution" are identical to those of previous popes going back at least to Pius XII and possibly Pius X.
So you can’t mention protecting the environment of an unborn baby, just the environment of a monkey?
smh
Yes, we are supposed to be good stewards. Part of good stewardship involves not being stupid though, so I think the fallen-angels are in the details of exactly what is meant by “protecting the environment”.
Discussions of creation and evolution and of Biblical integrity are not the sole purview of chrstianity, since the Bible pre-existed chrstianity.
This is not your forum. You have no business telling me which threads and I may and may not post on. I suggest you simply ignore me if every word I type so disagrees with you.
AGW is a sin but we need to take our focus off abortion and homosexuality? Dude - I want my church back! |
If AGW were possible it might be a sin, but that’s like saying riding a unicorn is a sin. Show me that there is such a thing first.
As for “focus on abortion and homosexuality” even that could be a misleading factor — when substituted for core devotion to the Lord. You can focus like laser on such things and STILL miss heaven.
I’m sure this is just a mistake, with translation corrections to follow. /sarc/
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