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.
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.
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That’s not why they’re down-voting.
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.
He also likes to threaten them with legal action.
Where did you hear that? These articles seem to say the opposite.
2014 - https://www.cnn.com/2014/07/07/world/pope-clerical-sex-abuse/
2015 - https://www.cnn.com/2015/09/27/us/pope-francis-sex-abuse-victims/index.html
2018 - https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/37774/pope-francis-regularly-meets-with-abuse-victims-on-fridays
2023 - https://www.foxnews.com/world/pope-francis-holds-private-meetings-sex-abuse-victims-ukrainian-pilgrims
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…
Sexual abuse happens in virtually every organization. The main issue is how it is dealt with. The catholic church has a long issue of dealing with issues internally, but this was definitely one that was not being handled correctly. Francis has made it clear that he is willing to face the issue head-on now that he has the power.
We do not have to turn a blind eye to their past mistakes, but we should also acknowledge what they are actually doing to work on those mistakes instead of spreading misinformation about them still hiding from it.
I especially liked it when he faced it head-on in Chile by saying all the allegations were “calumny”.
Definitely some odd choices here. Condemns the main abuser to a life-time of penance and prayer and then totally dismisses any claims that the abuser’s protege may have seen the abuse.
It does seem he eventually changed his tune, but not before seriously harming his credibility on the issue.
https://www.npr.org/2018/06/11/618825779/pope-francis-accepts-resignations-of-3-bishops-over-chilean-abuse-scandal
Nice, justifying sex abuse.
They don’t get a round of applause for no longer empowering rapist priests.
… thats not what justifying means.
No, that is called having an adult conversation where we acknowledge reality and then discuss how to fix it, or in this case how it is already being worked on.
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.
Samesies
I really enjoyed this comment chain. Fuck organised religions, and this one in particular.
We can hate the institution and still accept their help preventing the world from dying.
Enemy of my enemy, and climate crisis is everyones enemy. I would accept mafia support too, at this point.
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.
The Pope says Catholics must accept Gay people, but won’t give them the same right to marriage as straight people. Hypocrisy, although I guess he’s probably worried all his clergy will try and marry the kids they’re abusing.
Its the church. They make molasses look like water.
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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.
The pope influences opinions of millions of catholic voters.
Distributed across many countries, limiting the impact of their vote outside of countries that are state- or majority -catholic.
There are lots of countries with significant catholic population or even majority.
There are significantly more that don’t.
I’m not sure what point you’re trying to make. If you were to ask me, "are there a lot of Catholics in the world?” my answer would be: yes. Because there are. About 15% of the population of the planet is technically* Catholic. That’s a lot of the population of the earth comparative to almost anything that isn’t a birth-given attribute.
However, in the biggest countries in the world, and for the majority of countries in the world, they are not a majority. Even less so for countries that play a significant part on the world stage in a political way.
I’m happy to ask the same question again as I’m awaiting an answer and, as a scientist, I will change my view in line with the evidence that is presented: in the last 30 years, outside of Vatican City, and in states where Catholicism is not the state or most widely recognized religion or denomination, what meaningful and significant political decisions or stances has the pope influenced?
* The methodology of this is questionable but I’m happy to take it on face value for the purposes of this discussion.
E: it’s easier to accuse someone of trying to impersonate you than it is to actually win an argument, see below for a demo.
Is Latin America not important enough? How about Poland or Italy? There are even 20% of catholics in the USA. According to Wiki, there is 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide - that’s important enough to me. Do you really think major religions play no role on the political stage?
15% of the world’s population is ~1.3b people. You don’t need to quote the same stats back at me.
Where did I say anything about SA not being important? Equally, why fixate on SA if the pope has influenced so much politically in the rest of the world?
Also we’re talking about Catholicism and the Pope, not other major religions. Stop moving the goalposts.
I’m still waiting for the answer to my question.
Politicians fight dirty over smaller voting demographics, Im pretty sure its a big enough percent to make a difference
“pretty sure” is a very weak stance, especially with the continuing absence of evidence to support this conjecture
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 🇨🇱).
Yeah, SA is certainly an exception in that regard, but one that makes the rule
Ok, but the question is what has the pope(s) influenced positively over the last 3 decades? Main religion in Latin America is a respectable feat but it is not necessarily a positive influence nor has that been established in the last 3 decades.
I’ve had a lot of downvotes and zero answers. Take that as you will.