Posted on 10/25/2016 4:45:10 PM PDT by marshmallow
Hailed as a significant call for action, the pope’s encyclical has not had the anticipated rallying effect on public opinion, researchers have found
The pope’s call for action on climate change has fallen on closed ears, research suggests.
A study by researchers in the US has found that right-leaning Catholics who had heard of the pope’s message were less concerned about climate change and its effects on the poor than those who had not, and had a dimmer view of the pope’s credibility.
“The pope and his papal letter failed to rally any broad support on climate change among the US Catholics and non-Catholics,” said Nan Li, first author of the research from Texas Tech University.
“The conservative Catholics who are cross-pressured by the inconsistency between the viewpoints of their political allies and their religious authority would tend to devalue the pope’s credibility on this issue in order to resolve the cognitive dissonance that they experience,” she added.
Issued in June 2015, Pope Francis’s encyclical, called Laudato Si’, warned of an “unprecedented destruction of ecosystems” if climate change continues unchecked and cited the scientific consensus that human activity is behind global warming.
Research conducted on the eve of the announcement found that 68% of Americans and 71% of US Catholics believe in climate change, with Democrats more likely than Republicans to believe in the issue, put it down to human causes and rate it as a serious problem.
The pontiff’s comments were seen by many as a significant call for action in the battle against climate change, focusing on the moral need to address the impact of humans on the planet. “Pope Francis is personally committed to this [climate] issue like no other pope before him. The encyclical will have a major impact,” said Christiana Figueres, the UN’s climate chief, at..........
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
Being a Traditional Catholic, I can say that anything that comes out of Francis the talking pope says, we don’t listen to...
The Pope’s followers are smarter the he is.
P2 calls for Papal Change.
The pope could just as easily stated that the earth was flat...but that’s been done.
When the pope releases an encyclical that reads like it was written by Al Gore, I’d say his credibility is non-existent.
Also on deaf ears.
By whom?
The Pope thinks he’s a scientist now.
More than that we need to find the most conservative Bishop there is and start fighting back to take our church out of the hands of communists and the gay mafia!!
Out there is another John Paul II waiting to join Trump in the world’s struggles!!
But not by a pope.
LOL, who cares what Papa Francis thinks about stealing taxpayer monies for the Church. The Holy Spirit won’t let us be led astray, nor the Church. God bless Pope Francis. Amen. Not one single church teaching has been changed.
The Pope has been traveling around the world preaching a Socialism message so we shouldn’t be surprised to see that he is knee deep in this issue too. Catholics, get rid of this guy.
Everybody in the Western world except perhaps uneducated peasants knew the Earth was round since the time of the ancient Greeks. The myth of Christopher Columbus being warned about falling off the edge of the earth was concocted in the 19th century.
Message Fail!
I wonder % of catholics have ever heard of Laudato Si’ much less who wrote it and what it is about.
Freegards
But “he’s a scientist!” according to liberal acquaintances of mine: they think that he has an advanced degree in chemistry (which he does not).
YES THERE IS!!!
The Salt Lake Tribune
Catholic Bishop Wester ‘sad’ to leave Utah, takes immigration fight to New Mexico
By PEGGY FLETCHER STACK AND KRISTEN MOULTON | The Salt Lake Tribune
First Published Apr 27 2015 08:00AM • Last Updated May 02 2015 06:52 pm
Bishop John C. Wester has spent eight years in Mormon-dominant Utah, counseling, confirming and christening Catholics, officiating at Masses, fighting to end poverty, traversing the globe on assignments, penning opinion pieces and speaking forcefully about social justice.
In all of that busyness, one overriding Wester concern stands out: immigration reform.
Now the charismatic 64-year-old cleric, who has been tapped as the new archbishop of Santa Fe, will be going to a state that shares a border with Mexico, where Catholics make up a quarter of the populace and where heated debates about the rights of immigrants, legal or not, have become commonplace
The Vatican announced Monday that Wester, who was installed as Utah’s ninth Catholic bishop on March 14, 2007, will assume his new post in New Mexico on June 4.
“I am feeling sad. I thought I might retire from Salt Lake City, but I am willing to serve anywhere I am asked,” Wester told The Salt Lake Tribune on Monday evening. “I ask priests to move when they don’t want to. Now I have to take some of my own medicine.”
Santa Fe’s retiring archbishop, Michael Sheehan, said a dose of Wester is just what his flock needs.
“He will be such a perfect fit for our church here,” Sheehan told those attending an Albuquerque news conference streamed live Monday on television station KOAT.
Sheehan said Wester was the clergyman he wanted as his replacement.
“I did everything I could to encourage God,” Sheehan explained. “I even did some old special things to get our Lord to go along with it, and I talked to a couple cardinals, too.”
Wester said his first thoughts when contacted by Pope Francis’ representative in the United States, Papal Nuncio Carlo Maria Vigano, were what he will leave behind.
“I have dear friends in the Diocese of Salt Lake City,” Wester said, adding that his emotions ran from shock to wonderment to fear.
In the end, he said, he realized all is within God’s providence. “It’s all about God. It’s not about me. ... It’s about service to God’s people.”
Utah is a beautiful place, he said, with a “grace-filled diocese.”
Sheehan noted that Wester has made friends among Beehive State Mormons and told him, “We have Mormons here, too.”
Wester’s Utah successor likely will not be appointed for several months. However, a seven-member, clerical panel will meet soon to elect an interim administrator for the Salt Lake City Diocese.
Called in California • Growing up in a close-knit Catholic family in San Francisco, Wester left home at age 13 for St. Joseph’s Seminary in Menlo Park, Calif., to begin a 12-year program to become a priest — four years of high school and two years of college, followed by six at nearby St. Patrick’s Seminary. Eventually, he earned two graduate degrees, in counseling and spirituality.
“One clear way of knowing if you’re doing the right thing is if it makes you happy,” Wester said in 2007. “I can honestly say each day of my priesthood is happier than the last.”
The Vatican announced Monday that Wester, who was installed as Utah’s ninth Catholic bishop on March 14, 2007, will assume his new post in New Mexico on June 4.
“I am feeling sad. I thought I might retire from Salt Lake City, but I am willing to serve anywhere I am asked,” Wester told The Salt Lake Tribune on Monday evening. “I ask priests to move when they don’t want to. Now I have to take some of my own medicine.”
Santa Fe’s retiring archbishop, Michael Sheehan, said a dose of Wester is just what his flock needs.
“He will be such a perfect fit for our church here,” Sheehan told those attending an Albuquerque news conference streamed live Monday on television station KOAT.
Sheehan said Wester was the clergyman he wanted as his replacement.
“I did everything I could to encourage God,” Sheehan explained. “I even did some old special things to get our Lord to go along with it, and I talked to a couple cardinals, too.”
Wester said his first thoughts when contacted by Pope Francis’ representative in the United States, Papal Nuncio Carlo Maria Vigano, were what he will leave behind.
“I have dear friends in the Diocese of Salt Lake City,” Wester said, adding that his emotions ran from shock to wonderment to fear.
In the end, he said, he realized all is within God’s providence. “It’s all about God. It’s not about me. ... It’s about service to God’s people.”
Utah is a beautiful place, he said, with a “grace-filled diocese.”
Sheehan noted that Wester has made friends among Beehive State Mormons and told him, “We have Mormons here, too.”
Wester’s Utah successor likely will not be appointed for several months. However, a seven-member, clerical panel will meet soon to elect an interim administrator for the Salt Lake City Diocese.
Called in California • Growing up in a close-knit Catholic family in San Francisco, Wester left home at age 13 for St. Joseph’s Seminary in Menlo Park, Calif., to begin a 12-year program to become a priest — four years of high school and two years of college, followed by six at nearby St. Patrick’s Seminary. Eventually, he earned two graduate degrees, in counseling and spirituality.
“One clear way of knowing if you’re doing the right thing is if it makes you happy,” Wester said in 2007. “I can honestly say each day of my priesthood is happier than the last.”
Yeah. Too many American Catholics out of work shopping at Dollar Tree and too many Catholics children and women being raped in Germany to think much about climate change.
Is he stupid, corrupt or evil? Sort of what I ask myself every day about Obama although I know the answer with the Clintons (they’re all three).
Got my ancient teachings confused; they said the sun revolved around the earth, not that the earth was flat.
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