The Pope calls on Catholics to act on the climate!
By Thom Hartmann A...
The fight to save our planet isn't only about survival. According to Pope Francis, we have a “grave ethical and moral responsibility” to act on climate change, and in 2015, the pontiff will direct all Catholics to do just that. In March, Pope Francis will urge the world's 1.2 billion Catholics to do more to address global warming.
In addition, Francis will also give an address to the United Nations, and he will address the climate at a summit of the world's religions. Although we don't yet know how the Pope will layout his call for action, his recent speeches shed some light on why he sees this as a moral issue.
At an event in October, Pope Francis explained, “The monopolizing of lands, deforestation, the appropriation of water, inadequate agro-toxins are some of the evils that tear man from the land of his birth. Climate change, the loss of biodiversity, and deforestation are already showing their devastating effects in the great cataclysms we witness.” In other words, rising temperatures around the world already cause massive destruction and suffering around the world, and things will only get worse if we don't act.
At a speech in Lima, Peru, Pope Francis warned that “the time to find global solutions is running out.” That's why the Holy Father is doing everything in his power to push people to act. We do have a moral responsibility to prevent destruction and suffering caused by climate change, and we have to fight to ensure the survival of our species.
Pope Francis can push a billion Catholics to help stop global warming, and that's a cause that even non-Christians should support.
Comments
#2
The most under-reported story might be the fact that the losing incumbent Democratic senators were actually in states with higher turnout. Democrats can't blame generally low turnout, they can only blame low Democratic-voter turnout. Those Democrats lost because the Republican Party got its people to show up in sufficient numbers.
I don't think those incumbents lost because of bad campaigning or the mid-term drop in voter attention (which seems to affect all voters pretty equally). It was just because the Republicans took the opportunity afforded by the mid-term drop to run a better ground game.
#3
The best of all possible new years to everyone. I'll see you, hear you, and read you in 2015.
#4
Pope Francis is my all time favorite Pope! Hands down, he rocks!
#5
Given that unbridled population growth is one of the driving forces behind climate change, if not THE driving force, if Pope Francis doesn't encourage birth control, than he's not really doing anything about climate change.
PROMOTE BIRTH CONTROL...before it's too late!
#6
It is WAY too late! We can only prepare for the inevitable consequences of the wrong decisions our so-called representatives in government have made over the past 150 years concerning OIL!
#7
Good evening all,happy new year.Look up;Annunake,Yazidi prophecy(Iraq war three started with ISIS attack on our brothers and sisters there, pray for them),and Thom as you reported on a radio signal 10 seconds out,well it was for those tuned in to our maker.Proof;ozone layer depleted yes?ionize gold dust as the creator wanted and apply to ionosphere.James of Spring City(James Michael Campbell)Peacock angel,Arch angel those that share the name,Michelle,Michael,Mikael etc.Heart lght turned on a year or so ago,I have many answers to our Mother Earth cleanup.She is our reward for helping him so long ago.You know our garden of eden.this not the first time in our geologic history that we have made a mess of her.Tell the Honorable Senator Sanders to look for a letter with the contents of Ram-Hydrogen(combustion)transportation and 3D printed car.I am trying to find help getting it to paper.I have not been very successful.Please ask pope Francis to pray for me on thie endevour.I pray I get to meet you soon.James(Michael) of Spring City.Yazidi love to all!
#8
"In March, Pope Francis will urge the world's 1.2 billion Catholics to do more to address global warming."
You're up DALAI LAMA!
The KOCH BROTHERS (aka TWINKLES & LURCH) will NOT be happy! : )
Happy New Year Thom, Louise, & Company!
#9
Mark my words, they're gonna off this pope, either by "mad" gunman or, like John Paul I, Monsignor will put something in his tea and he'll die in his sleep like it was "God's will" to stop a progressive pope.
#10
Isn't he the Vicker of the Lord? Why doesn't he just ask God to fix it?
This Pope is on a shameless PR tour for Catholicism . The Church of Rome is in decline so he's making a token populace appeal.
I try not to be cynical about such things, but the Catholic church is a pedophile protection network that should be burnt to the ground, not admired for , in my humble or not so humble opinion, placating people in hopes of good publicity.
#11
He's not on a PR tour for Catholicism, any more than the head of any institution is about promoting it. He's on a tour for peace, justice and truth, using his moral and social authority to promote those very "progressive" values, as he is very progressive and even socialist or genuinely communist, unlike Stalin or someone like that who was ahthoritarian but not humanitarian. He is head of a strict hierarchy and top-down system but his personality is not authoritarian but egalitarian.
Most Catholics are not pedophiles or supporters of pedophilia, you musn't be subsumed with that one problem of the Church. The reason for it, in my opinion, is celibate clergy serving as a repository for what is considered sexual deviance in Catholic society and general superstitious hysteria about sex and sexual abnormality in our civilization. The Catholic clergy has long been where homosexual individuals went to hide and deal with their "deviance" and others with problems of a sexual nature were directed there to be swept under the rug, closeted and have their sexual problems "given to God" to deal with with their preferred - or any sexual activity - renounced by the vow of chastity and committment to a celibate lifestyle. You can see that timebomb already just from that description.
As was done in all traditional religious and other institutions of Western Civilization intolerant of sex or sexual variation, when an issue of a sexual nature comes up, the Catholic Church first tried to deny and suppress the problem rather than face and deal with it. The Church, as an institution, behaved much as an individual person with some kind of personal problem - like sexual deviance, drug addiction, mental illness, etc. - usually behaves. It denied it and tried to ignore it until it could no more.
The previous pope, Ratzenberg, tried, as a solution, the purging of homosexuals from the Church. One great gay priest and pastor I knew and collaborated with on some social justice campaigns and who was a great advocate for justice but was not known to engage in any sexual activity and certainly not any pedophilia, got run out of the Church because he was gay under that regime. I knew another liberal, lefty priest who, in the '80s, because of his politics, was set up and accused of pedophilia by his local conservative clerical authorities. They didn't try to protect him at all but vigorously brought the case to trial - before which he was cleared as the charges were fabricated. He believed Pope John Paul I was murdered - or assasinated - by conservative clergy members - as do many liberal Catholics.
Pope Francis represents the new Church "in recovery' from its personal problems.
#12
Mid term low voter turnout and Republican diehard mobilization are always the cause of Republican sweeps of the House and Senate. General low information also contributes. In 1994, after the first Republican sweep since '48 or so, Newsweek reported that (by what I believe was an ABC News poll) 59% of Americans believed the deficit had increased since Clintons election and inauguration when it had already been brougbht down by $100 billion. A similar majority believed the recession was still on when it had already ended even before the 1992 election. Such was the foundation of the voters' "rebuke" of Bill Clinton.
#13
Here's a little article about St. Francis your Prince of Peace
An institution is not an individual and their collective action had to be a conspiracy of silence all the way to participation in the facilitating of child abuse, well beyond isolated incidents. Pedophilia was a common practice of priest and covering it up was common practice of the church. Comparing individual weakness to an institution trying to protect its image is a flimsy argument; that I would hope you'd reconsider.
The message from the Pope about environmental responsibility is positive, however, the Church of Rome is desperate to change their image around the world. I would think people would find it awful convenient that the Church of Rome, who've remained virtually silent on global warming, suddenly started appealing to such a populace cause. I am not buying it and I would not trust a Pope that spent his Priestly years as a fascist collaborator in Argentina.
#14
He's better than most other popes but it's still the same old Catholic church, keeping women "in their place".
#15
Catholic women might have something to say about that and they might find an ally in this pope.
#16
The Real Facts Behind Rapid Climate Change
If anyone had ever said
You’ll find the Gates of Hell one day,
I’d look at them and certainly say
You must be crazy in the head!
But now I live at the Gates of Hell;
Three years now and I know it well.
It’s the Valley of Death! It hurts my eyes
To look around and see everything dies!
I cannot seem to get away;
It is entrapment every day.
Poisonous snow and toxic rain
And living every day in pain!
Seldom sunshine do we see,
And skies aren’t blue like they used to be.
It seems the animals have fled;
And trees are falling, broken and dead!
We never smell nor breathe fresh air
And oxygen levels are so low where
The heavy metals hang everywhere
Going into our lungs and staying there!
At night the stars are seldom seen
Because the air is so unclean;
So many particles in the air
To go outside you shouldn’t dare!
It once was lovely here, folks say
And people came to visit and play;
But now there’s something very grim,
That vibrant beauty’s grown so dim!
Just like a lovely piece of art
Was hanging on a wall one day,
‘Til a villain came with brush in hand
And smeared the canvas with shades of gray!
Yes, the Gates of Hell are here;
The trees are sick, the mountains too.
It seems as if they are screaming at you,
“Help me, help me, can’t you see?
Something is destroying me!”
“Climate change” you’ll hear it said
Is why the animals have fled
And why we see the trees are dead.
Powers coming through The Gates of Hell
Have brainwashed the people very well!
And people won’t look up to see
The obvious re-al-i-ty !
Planes dropping poisons on their head;
They’d rather believe the LIE instead!
Satan’s clever, yes, very smart;
He has it down to a work of art!
He rules the skies and kills people too;
Yet they don’t even have a clue!
They’re getting sicker
And don’t know why
“Cause they don’t even see
What falls from the sky!
Off to the doctor
For a new vaccine!
The saddest scenario I’ve ever seen!
Vaccines to poison just like the air
Yet people don’t know --- or
Don’t they care?
The deception is incredible;
I simply am amazed.
Instead of waking up at all,
Folks seem like they are dazed!
When all the maple trees are gone
And gardens don’t exist,
Will people then see something’s wrong
Or will apathy persist !!!!
Yes, Hell has come to Earth, my friend!
The gates are open wide!
It’s a wake-up call here in Vermont;
There’ll be no place to hide!
If you tend to find this humorous,
Excuse me while I fail to laugh
For if folks don’t wake up very soon
They should now write their epitaph!
The "Gates of Hell" by Anonymous from Vermont
#17
Mr. Hartmann,
Please book a telephone interview with the Pope to talk about climate collapse and concentrated wealth.
#18
Reply to #15: Mark: Indeed, Catholic women might have something to say about that. But when it comes to issues critical to women's wellbeing, such as birth control and abortion, this pope is no better than any other damn pope. And many Catholic women continue breaking their patriarchal little rules each day, using birth control on the sly, having abortions on the sly. What's in it for them, adhering to that religion, is beyond me. But I'm sure some Catholic women would have plenty to say about that too. Whatever they might say, my only answer to that would be simply: To each her own. - AIW
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