Pope Francis’s edict on climate change will anger deniers and US churches

[Eugene]

Source: The Observer

Pope Francis’s edict on climate change will anger deniers and US churches

John Vidal
The Observer, Saturday 27 December 2014 21.06 GMT

He has been called the “superman pope”, and it would be hard to deny that Pope Francis has had a good December. Cited by President Barack Obama as a key player in the thawing relations between the US and Cuba, the Argentinian pontiff followed that by lecturing his cardinals on the need to clean up Vatican politics. But can Francis achieve a feat that has so far eluded secular powers and inspire decisive action on climate change?

It looks as if he will give it a go. In 2015, the pope will issue a lengthy message on the subject to the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics, give an address to the UN general assembly and call a summit of the world’s main religions.

The reason for such frenetic activity, says Bishop Marcelo Sorondo, chancellor of the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy of Sciences, is the pope’s wish to directly influence next year’s crucial UN climate meeting in Paris, when countries will try to conclude 20 years of fraught negotiations with a universal commitment to reduce emissions.

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Following a visit in March to Tacloban, the Philippine city devastated in 2012 by typhoon Haiyan, the pope will publish a rare encyclical on climate change and human ecology. Urging all Catholics to take action on moral and scientific grounds, the document will be sent to the world’s 5,000 Catholic bishops and 400,000 priests, who will distribute it to parishioners.

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Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/27/pope-francis-edict-climate-change-us-rightwing

[cbayer]

1. Misleading headline. He will anger the John Boehners and Rick Santorums

and their followers, but many US churches will cheer and cheer loudly.

[Cartoonist]

2. A Catholic without a Pope

That was the opinion of Cuba haters. I expect the same from climate deniers.

[mmonk]

3. The Franciscans have been battling climate change deniers

for years now. Maybe by taking Francis's name, he has taken that spirit of action.