Copies of Pope Francis’ latest letter on the environment, “Laudate Deum,” are seen in a bookshop in Rome, Oct. 4, 2023. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Posted on 05/24/2024 10:36:53 AM PDT by ebb tide
(RNS) — Three Catholic bishops and a nun walked into a climate policy meeting at the White House. This isn’t the beginning of a joke. Bishop Edward Weisenburger of Tucson, Arizona, Bishop Joseph Tyson of Yakima, Washington, and St. Joseph Sister Carol Zinn, executive director of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, and I really did go to the White House on Nov. 17, with support from communications specialist Lonnie Ellis. We went to discuss Pope Francis’ latest apostolic exhortation on climate, “Laudate Deum.”
We went with a mission — a nonpartisan, faith-filled mission. Here’s why.
We are all being impacted by worsening wildfires, heat waves and floods. We know that communities of color and the poor are being hit the hardest. Last fall, Pope Francis issued a second impassioned call to answer the climate crisis. In Laudate Deum, he specifically mentioned the United States, pointing out that our emissions are “seven times greater than the average of the poorest countries.” He encouraged individual and systemic conversion.
The pope’s call spurred Catholic leaders to advocate to our government. Shortly after Laudate Deum’s release, we got the opportunity to speak with senior White House staff and to champion four policies supported by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to reduce four specific kinds of pollutants: soot pollution, methane, carbon pollution from power plants and emissions from heavy-duty vehicles.
With leadership from our domestic policy chair, Archbishop Borys Gudziak, the USCCB has advocated for stronger standards from the Environmental Protection Agency on each of these fronts.
Copies of Pope Francis’ latest letter on the environment, “Laudate Deum,” are seen in a bookshop in Rome, Oct. 4, 2023. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Because pollution can enter deep into our lungs and bloodstream and lead to death, clean air and water are clear human life issues to us. Just as God tells us in the Bible to prioritize orphans, widows and other vulnerable people, so too our faith tells us to take action for those vulnerable to pollutants, wildfires and hurricanes. We also look to the future and our moral duty to leave our kids and grandkids a cleaner and safer world.
As the pope wrote in Laudate Deum, “Every family ought to realize that the future of their children is at stake.”
Technology and human experience keep telling us that our planet is small and interconnected. I would argue that faith tells us something similar. Faith tells us that we are one human family living together in a common home. This common home belongs to God, as the Bible’s Psalm 24 states: “The earth is the Lord’s and all that it holds.”
That is why Francis can boldly assert that polluting our air and water is “a sin against ourselves and a sin against God.” We commit grave harm against ourselves through environmental destruction and we go against God’s plan for us, which is to live in right relationship with one another and with God’s creation.
We are told that Washington is broken and our country is so polarized that it’s paralyzed. That is not what I see around me. People across the political spectrum worry about extreme weather and about chemicals that seem to be everywhere. I see people hoping to have clean air and clean water, regardless of their political persuasion. We all hope for a planet that is healthy for our kids and grandkids.
I am so grateful to see progress. In the six months since that White House meeting, the Environmental Protection Agency strengthened the standards on all four of those pollution sources. These measures will collectively reduce climate pollution by billions of tons and, by 2035, prevent more than 5,000 deaths per year, according to the EPA. Pollution doesn’t care how you voted.
Care for our common home is moving beyond politics. These EPA actions may be read through a partisan lens for a while. But more and more, Americans are expecting cleaner energy and fewer toxins in our world. More and more people are joining Pope Francis’ “pilgrimage of reconciliation” with our environment. I pray that this growing, shared commitment will even lead to greater reconciliation with one another.
(The Most Rev. John C. Wester is archbishop of the Catholic Archdiocese of Santa Fe, New Mexico. The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of Religion News Service.)
He and his fellow tree-huggers and Laudato Si truly are the joke.
Ping
It gets oddly weirder and more predictable at the same time.
Gaia-worshipping Marxists
The office of bishop attracts priests who 1) legitimately have a vocation to wise and selfless leadership for the glory of god; or, in many cases 2) are heretical mediocrities who are stuck on themselves, and long to push other souls around while themselves indulging in every conceivable luxury that is inappropriate to their vocation.
Have the Bishops and Nun developed a solution to volcanic eruptions. Pyroclastic gases from volcanoes include CO2, hydrogen Halides, H2S and SO2 gases blown into the upper atmosphere and circle the globe for years affecting our wx and environment. The past few years, 5 major volcanoes have erupted pumping over 100 billion tons of ash and vapors into our atmosphere, some of which can kill you and vegetation. Many people are noticing a fine dust on polished open patio floors and autos left out of the garage overnight under no wind conditions outside of cities. The eruptions don’t seem to be slowing down. I plan to stick with my hamburgers and steaks, tree-huggers can have my share of cicadas and worms, thank you very much.
Up next. Why gay sex is wonderful a ND abortion protects the most vulnerable.
After reading this and a couple other posted articles on the same source, I am beginning to conclude that Religion News Service is an open cesspool of nonsense.
A clergyman who looks like he has trouble saying “no” at the dinner table, usually has other problems. It’s not universal in either direction, it’s just a good clue.
Whenever I see this line of reasoning, I know what's really behind it. Whoever thinks or talks like this has an underlying motive to blame others, while suggesting that they need to be given more power and/or money to address the problem.
If we're fair, the statement may or may not be inaccurate, but it doesn't tell the full story. Many things hit communities of color and poor much harder than they hit the middle class or wealthy. That's the undeniable truth of economics. Money does not prevent problems, and it can create its own problems, but it definitely makes problems more manageable.
Unlike the leftists, progressives, Communists, and Socialists et al, I do not believe the solution to economic problems for poor people is to take from people of means and give it to people in needs. Usually it does not solve the underlying problem, but takes away money from one group, and takes the need to learn responsibility from others. Of course, it enriches those who have the power. And that's why the promote these harmful ideas.
The best way to help poor people is to provide a pathway for them to become financially independent. Fortunately, there is already the means to do so with public education.
While it's expected that Democrats and liberals are using these events as tools to manipulate people, it's sad that people of my religion, from the leader on down are engaging in this sinister plot, which is really just about getting more power.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.