CNA Staff, Oct 4, 2023 / 06:03 am (CNA).
Pope Francis on Wednesday released a new document on the environment that he has described as the “second part” of his 2015 encyclical Laudato Si’, and which warns of “grave consequences” if humanity continues to ignore the threat of climate change.
The apostolic exhortation, titled Laudate Deum (“Praise God”), is meant to address what Francis in the document calls the “global social issue” of climate change. The pope said that in the eight years since Laudato Si’ was published, “our responses have not been adequate” to address ongoing ecological concerns.
“Climate change is one of the principal challenges facing society and the global community,” the pope wrote in the document, arguing that its effects are borne by the world’s “most vulnerable people” and that the climate issue is “no longer a secondary or ideological question.”
Francis wrote that the effects of climate change “are here and increasingly evident,” and warned of increasing heat waves and the possible melting of the polar ice caps, which he said would lead to “immensely grave consequences for everyone.”
“No one can ignore the fact that in recent years we have witnessed extreme weather phenomena, frequent periods of unusual heat, drought, and other cries of protest on the part of the earth that are only a few palpable expressions of a silent disease that affects everyone,” the pope said.
Warns of ‘resistance’ to climate science
Environmentalism has long been a favorite topic of Francis. Laudato Si’ was heralded at the time of its publication as a revolutionary papal document for its emphasis on Catholic ecological responsibility.
Then-U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops President Bishop Joseph Kurtz called the encyclical “our marching orders for advocacy.” The document launched the Laudato Si Movement, which bills itself as a “broad range of Catholic organizations and grassroots members from all over the world” walking “on a journey of ecological conversion.”
In the earlier document Francis conceded that the Church “does not presume to settle scientific questions or to replace politics,” but in the exhortation this week the Holy Father took a more forceful line, criticizing those who “have chosen to deride [the] facts” about climate science and stating bluntly that it is “no longer possible to doubt the human—‘anthropic’—origin of climate change.”
“It is not possible to conceal the correlation of these global climate phenomena and the accelerated increase in greenhouse gas emissions, particularly since the mid-20th century,” Francis wrote. “The overwhelming majority of scientists specializing in the climate support this correlation, and only a very small percentage of them seek to deny the evidence.”
Francis said in the document that what he described as a “technocratic paradigm” has “destroyed” the mutually beneficial relationship with the environment that humans have at times enjoyed. Humanity’s “power and the progress we are producing are turning against us,” the pope argued.
Francis noted that climate mitigation efforts over the years have been met with both “progress and failures,” though the pope expressed hope that next month’s 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference could “allow for a decisive acceleration of energy transition, with effective commitments subject to ongoing monitoring.”
He argued, however, that longtime global diplomatic arrangements have failed to meet the challenges of the climate emergency.
“It continues to be regrettable that global crises are being squandered when they could be the occasions to bring about beneficial changes,” he wrote. The world, he argued, should look toward “the development of a new procedure for decision-making” to solve global problems.
The pope pointed to what he described as the “spiritual motivations” of climate action, noting that the Book of Genesis records that, upon his creation of the universe, “God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good.”
“‘Praise God’ is the title of this letter,” Francis wrote at the encyclical’s conclusion. “For when human beings claim to take God’s place, they become their own worst enemies.”
Francis since 2015 has been active in warning about the potential devastation posed by climate change. In 2021, he launched the Catholic Church’s seven-year “Laudato Si’ action plan,” which he described as the Church’s part in “a new ecological approach that can transform our way of dwelling in the world.”
The pope later that year joined religious leaders in calling upon the global community to “achieve net zero carbon emissions as soon as possible” to head off potentially devastating temperature rises.
Laudate Deum’s publication date — Oct. 4 — is the feast of St. Francis of Assisi, from whom Francis drew his pontifical name at the start of his papacy in 2013. It is also the start date of the first monthlong assembly in Rome of the ongoing Synod on Synodality.
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Marching orders for advocacy [Bishop Kurtz] means marching off the end of the cliff into the sea of secularism. Francis I, pope of the Roman catholic Church, scientist with specialization in meteorology, now suddenly graduated to climate science.
While scientific warning emerging from bona fide scientists deserves attention, the role of the pontiff is not to engage in scientific research and speculation unless it affects doctrine. While we’re stewards commissioned by God we’re not, as a Church [although we most likely have Catholic laymen scientists as well as qualified clergy] in a reasonable position to contribute nor should we impose restrictions, or even suggest the use of fossil fuel energy is immoral. There’s a host of interconnectedness that would affect others’ welfare if we were to withdraw our usage. Although, our Church can and should address issues related to the environment when the evidence is confirmed.
Other, more vital issues that we are knowledgeable of are those that directly reference the deposit of faith and Christ’s revelation. We neither hear nor read anything coming out of the Vatican that clearly and incontrovertibly condemns sins such as abortion and homosexuality – the requirement for salvation to convert to Christ and his commandments, and to repent of our sins. There is virtually no call to metanoia from both Vatican and [most] parish pulpit.
This increasingly deranged megalomaniac is not content to reign as tyrant over the church. He must impose his half-baked economic and environmental theories on the world, with a likely exception for China. To put it simply, bluntly and truthfully, he doesn’t know what he is talking about. No one, Catholic or not, should treat this thing any differently than if it had come from a political party, the UN or EU.
It is said that the Church has often developed and better defined doctrine when it was forced to by heretical challenges. One day, when some measure of sanity and decency has been restored to the Vatican a future pope must commission sound scholars to look again at the questions of a pope’s infallibility, supremacy and ability to propose binding teachings in his ordinary magisterium. Francis’ egregious abuses of his office’s authority in the service of pernicious ideologies make such an effort necessary and urgent.
Planet Earth is thirsting for love and tender care.