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?”
How about your talk about leaving a Church or a Church leaving you?
Where is the promise of God in this?
I detect a worldly attitude.
Wow...Just Wow....
It is simply amazing how much this story has snowballed... Stories have already started writing it for Pope Francis. The new Narrative now be, “Pope Francis condemns evil humanity for polluting the earth.”
One would think that he isn’t even writing it, just a copy paste job from NYT/Guardian.
Does eternal truth even matter to this man? And if you had asked me a few years ago if I was capable of imagining such a time, if I would ever ask whether Truth mattered to a Bishop of Rome, I would have said, no, I couldn't.
I know Truth matters a great deal to Our Savior, and the Holy Spirit is called "the Spirit of Truth." But there is little that is true about the modern phrenology known as "climate change."
I couldn't be more alienated from this Pope if he'd suddenly reversed the Church of Rome's position on Ptolemy's Cosmos.
If any of my Catholic brothers are inclined to say now to me that I "hate the Church," don't bother. That would be a slander. I've been seriously examining the Catholic Catechism in recent months, particularly the matters of transubstantiation and the status of Mary, for example, things that touch upon prayer most especially. This is a huge stumbling block for me, and I don't think I have to remind anyone who has studied Christ and the Gospels what a sore subject stumbling blocks are for Our Lord, nor of their necessity. God's will be done.
I will continue to study the Fathers, etc., without regard for this Pope's "strange new respect" from our enemies in the West, without regard for his populist moves. The Truth will remain.
Thank God for the Bible, and thank God for those believers in ages past who remained zealous for the truth of God's word and His Christ. If all I knew of Catholicism was this Pope, well... it's very discouraging. Not unlike a radical Socialist being elected president.
they elected him
If Francis has been quoting Humani Generis of late, I had missed it, and what don’t you like out of Humani Generis?
Not being a good steward of creation is a sin. Not believing in the man made climate change hoax is just being smart.
Excellent point!
Worldly? Balderdash. My "attitude," as you describe it, is anything but worldly. There is no question in my mind that when I shake off this corporeal shell, I will stand in Judgment before our Almighty Lord. I abide His Judgment. |
Can a man closely connected to God be so easily deceived?
Ah, then you are doomed.
You must abide His grace.
Indeed - as must we all. |
The Catholic church needs another Martin Luther.
Eff this leftist, SECULAR BS.
He is calling on all Catholics to push for the transfer of donations and resources from solving poverty, suffering, disease, and spreading the word of God to a group of atheists intent on doing just the opposite.
In order to be saved, that is.
This grace may or may not steer you in the way of the fashionable church outcry of the age.
The bible preexisted Christianity?
Weird claim, before even putting out the encyclical.
Duh. Unless you want to believe that Moses was a chrstian, which is about the equivalent of believing he was a moslem or a mormon.
Exactly. We are called on by the Bible to be stewards of creation and to care for the environment. But that has nothing to do with “climate change” or other greenie nonsense.
Humani Generis gave evolutionism an opening.
How many of the 66 books were in the bible before Christ? Caution trick question?
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