Pope Francis made his strongest statements yet about climate change Wednesday, rebuking fossil fuel companies and urging countries to make an immediate transition to renewable energy.
In a new document titled “Laudate Deum,” or “Praise God,” the pope criticizes oil and gas companies for greenwashing new fossil fuel projects and calls for more ambitious efforts in the West to tackle the climate crisis. In the landmark apostolic exhortation, a form of papal writing, Francis says that “avoiding an increase of a tenth of a degree in the global temperature would already suffice to alleviate some suffering for many people.”
“Laudate Deum” is a follow-up to the pope’s 2015 encyclical on climate change, known as “Laudato Si’,” which lamented the exploitation of the planet and cast the protection of the environment as a moral imperative. When it was released, “Laudato Si’” was viewed as an extraordinary move by the head of the Catholic Church to address global warming and its consequences.
Nearly a decade later, the pope’s message has taken on new urgency.
When the Catholic Church stops covering up the rampant sexual abuse and money grubbing cash grab scam operations then maybe I’ll give two flying shits about what the Pope has to say.
People tend to overlook the fact that the words of someone with this level of influence are vitally important and can have enormous effects on the world.
Whether you in particular care about a famous/rich person’s comments or not, there are millions that do–and that is important. Important enough that even without respecting that person, we should always take what they say and do very seriously.
You bring up a valid point so I won’t debate. I still despise the institution that he represents and hope it all burns to the ground though.
Many times the victims of priest sexual abuse have approached the Vatican for a meeting and blessing from the pope. Every time the pope has turned them away and refused to even acknowledge their existence, or their plight. His lawyers tell him it’s not a good idea. And of course the representative of god, flanked by lawyers and bankers, listens to his lawyers over god.
Every time the pope has turned them away and refused to even acknowledge their existence
Where did you hear that? These articles seem to say the opposite.
Monday’s meeting between Francis and the six victims of church sexual abuse was not the first such meeting between a pontiff and survivors, but it was the first of Francis’ papacy.
2014 - https://www.cnn.com/2014/07/07/world/pope-clerical-sex-abuse/
“God weeps” for the sexual abuse of children, Pope Francis said Sunday in Philadelphia, after meeting with victims of sexual abuse.
2015 - https://www.cnn.com/2015/09/27/us/pope-francis-sex-abuse-victims/index.html
Pope Francis said he regularly meets with victims of sexual abuse on Fridays, and that while the percentage of priests who abuse is relatively low, even one is too many.
In the evening of the same day, Pope Francis held an audience with Portugese victims of sexual abuse by the Catholic Church.
Yet he ascended the ranks of the church while all that happened. Swell guy. I’m sure he knew nothing about it until he became pope…
News about what the head of the Catholic church does is as important as news about what the head of USA, China or Russia does. It’s hugely influencial even when it comes to lives of non-catholics, non-americans, non-chinese… because of the massive number of people that belong to the religion or state and the power that religion or state has. It’s a good thing the pope talks against fossil fuel companies, because his influence is big.
Can you name a few things that a pope has influenced politically in the last, say, three decades?
Because I call complete bullshit on this. Catholicism is big in its own domain (oversized Jesus-based pyramid schemes) but is irrelevant to the vast majority of the world, especially those countries which don’t recognise it as the official state religion which is pretty much all of them.
The Popes of recent history have done nothing of note except hide pedophilia, hoard the earnings of the poor, and resign.
It may not be THE vast majority of the world. 🌍🌏
But having Catholicism as the main religion in ALL of Latin America is pretty relevant. (And i know because i’m chilean 🇨🇱).
It’s fine you don’t care, but there’s something like 1.4 billion Catholics that probably do.
Most Catholics don’t listen to the Pope. The Pope says Catholics must accept gay people, but go to the third world or central america and see if Catholics follow that one.
I love how you have good 25% down-votes as if there are people who cheer for more abuse. There’s no way they think it’s just a made up story for the 60000th time.
How is that dude’s opinion relevant to anything outside his weird cult? Stop kid raping in your cult first, then you can try having opinions on things outside of it.
Genuinely curious why you think it’s a cult. Not even Catholic or Christian I just wanna get your reasoning
Cause there’s billions of people who claim to be his followers, and climate change is the biggest issue humanity has ever faced.
Having the leader of one of the largest religions pushing for ecological improvements is a good thing.
Fuck you pedophile apologist. Stop ignoring and turning away the victims of your priest’s rape and abuse.
This pope is nothing but PR bullshit and nice platitudes while he continues to be a vile piece of shit. And what the fuck does he know about fossil fuels and the energy industry? Shut the fuck up you fake wizard
top ignoring and turning away the victims of your priest’s rape and abuse
Same list as I dropped on your other post. Took like 30 seconds in a web-search to call that claim into serious doubt. Also, I searched for him turning away sexual abuse victims and found nothing.
Monday’s meeting between Francis and the six victims of church sexual abuse was not the first such meeting between a pontiff and survivors, but it was the first of Francis’ papacy.
2014 - https://www.cnn.com/2014/07/07/world/pope-clerical-sex-abuse/
“God weeps” for the sexual abuse of children, Pope Francis said Sunday in Philadelphia, after meeting with victims of sexual abuse.
2015 - https://www.cnn.com/2015/09/27/us/pope-francis-sex-abuse-victims/index.html
Pope Francis said he regularly meets with victims of sexual abuse on Fridays, and that while the percentage of priests who abuse is relatively low, even one is too many.
In the evening of the same day, Pope Francis held an audience with Portugese victims of sexual abuse by the Catholic Church.
This is part of the reason why I say that people who claim that church is anti-science, have never actually sat down and listened to the Pope.
While it’s important to note all the harm that has been done by bad actors in its ranks, the Roman Catholic Church has been a huge supporter of science for a long time now.
The anti-intellectualism movements in many churches right now are a fairly recent trend. Many of the world’s most-prestigous institutions of education and science were founded as religious institutions.
Understanding the natural world was long seen as examining the majesty of creation. The more people learned about the universe the grander its scale.
But of course there have also been times in history where the powerful worked tirelessly to deny people education and opportunity as they hoarded wealth for themselves, and they coopted churches to convince the people that knowledge was evil and that suffering was a sign of Godliness.
It’s also important to note that even the Roman Catholic Church is not a monolith. There are certainly those in its hierarchy who are as bad as you might expect, and others who are far more progressive than you’d guess. And when most people (at least and especially in America) say christian, they mostly mean protestant, which is even far less monolithic than the Catholics since it’s a bunch of similar churches with their own or sometimes no hierarchical structures.
Francis is just running damage control for the absolute fascist that last pope was.
The Church was definitely anti-science when it threatened to undermine their authority, i.e., when it contradicted some article of faith. This started in the Renaissance and continued up until very recently. The Catholic Church was still fighting against evolutionary theory in the 1980s!
So, if they only believe in science when it doesn’t contradict their superstition, and criticize and persecute scientists when it does… does that make them pro-science?
Things that make you go, “Hmmm…”
FUCK THE POPE and FUCK those that stand in the way of climate change work.
Both of those are entities that have regularly and consistently stood in the way of progress to enrich themselves in wealth and power. Disgusting.
