You GO Pope Francis. And thank you.

Totally got big-footed by the horrendous mass-murder in Charleston.

I hope we hear about it maybe tomorrow. I can just hear some Big Oil types or climate denier CONS sighing in relief. They weren't in the spotlight, and ON the spot, today.

While Pope Francis took a welcome step in the right direction with his just-released encyclical on climate change, he remains unwilling to break the doctrinal chains that prevent the Vatican from recognizing the impacts of population growth.

He dodged the population question by setting up a false dichotomy between those dedicated to “resolving the problems of the poor and thinking of how the world can be different” and unspecified “others” who “can only propose a reduction in the birth rate.” Only? No responsible observer believes that smaller families are a panacea. Of course, consumption matters. It is the Pope who is ducking the issue here.

Pope Francis goes on to claim that “developing countries face forms of international pressure which make economic assistance contingent on certain policies of ‘reproductive health.’” Certainly, grants and loans are proffered for a wide variety of purposes. As head of a global institution that denies basic human rights (such as the right to marry) to those who fail to accept its edicts, Pope Francis is in no position to lecture others about “pressure.”

The Pope writes that to “blame population growth instead of extreme and selective consumerism on the part of some, is one way of refusing to face the issues.” Again, Pope Francis sets up a straw man. It is his own refusal to address population growth that is both obstinate and unrealistic.

Pope Francis states the “attention needs to be paid to imbalances in population density, on both national and global levels, since a rise in consumption would lead to complex regional situations, as a result of the interplay between problems linked to environmental pollution, transport, waste treatment, loss of resources and quality of life.”

According to the UN, Africa’s population may quadruple to four billion by 2100. How many millions will suffer and die because the Vatican places a higher value on doctrinal purity than on the lives of innocent people? This is not merely a matter of “complex regional situations,” as the Pope would have it. It’s a matter of life and death for millions of people and for so many others among what the Pope would term God’s creatures.

Appreciation of the Pope’s stand on climate change must be tempered by a recognition that, as the head of an institution wholly governed by men, he has yet to recognize that, without access to modern contraception, women remain prisoners of medieval ideology.

Sincerely,


John Seager, President

But in the Pope's defense, at least he isn't making the case that more perverse capitalism will solve the problem of population growth.

Stronger language than I was expecting. This will be asking a LOT of the evangelical church. Hope there is a lot of coverage on this as the Charleston story winds down. We need to continue to talk about Charleston and all the places where people have been killed -- and -- there are other stories! I hope this bomb shell story has a day in the news.

Wont SOMEONE think of the children?

"In a month when papal conversation about marriage has been all the rage, the Vatican is enlisting a new set of allies to support its commitment to marriage between a man and a woman: American evangelicals and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The presence of American evangelicals and the LDS Church was particularly notable. Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church, and Russell Moore, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, each gave speeches, and representatives from the Heritage Foundation and the Family Research Council in Washington attended. President Henry Eyring of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ first presidency spoke and Elder Tom Perry of the LDS’s Quorum of the Twelve also joined. In the United States, this trio of faiths has worked together to stand against the government’s Affordable Care Act’s contraception mandate, but it was the first time they were coming together at the Vatican to talk about marriage.

Pope Francis did not spearhead the colloquium, as many casual observers might think. It was organized and led by German Cardinal Gerhard Müller, a strong conservative voice at the Pope’s Synod on the Family last month. Müller is the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican group that sponsored the event. Still, Pope Francis gave an opening address to attendees, in which he affirmed the Church’s teaching that children have a right to a mother and a father."
http://time.com/3597245/vatican-evangelicals-mormons-gay-marriage/

So his actions sure as fuck do not fit your propaganda.

was that the Pope is trying to teach 'fake Christians' to be nicer to LGBT people but he's doing the opposite, he is having big shindigs with the evangelical right wing, and it is not only this instance, it is also his involvement with Hobby Lobby's suit against the ACA and his vocal support for March For Life. He very actively seeks common ground with other anti gay, anti choice religious persons including the most despicable persons in the US, such as Tony Perkins.

What I take issue with is your open dishonesty about what Francis is doing, when shown evidence you respond with snarky rhetoric devoid of any content.
You made an assertion, I proved it to be incorrect and you responded with nonsense.

I notice you can not even manage to talk about the real events and words of this Pope Francis and instead you simply repeat your rote catechism of characterizations.

He invites NOM and FRC and SBC and LDS to a big anti gay party and you claim the very opposite. Anyone reading here can see that.

If you had a leg to stand on, you'd be able to discuss the facts, instead you dispense with the facts in favor of propaganda.

The insults and hate are coming from you.

The original post was about his recent writing, not this anti gay party you are focused on.

I started the post about the positive, you bombarded us with negative.

Why don't you start your own post about your hate instead of putting it here.

Or at the very least stop complaining to me when you are the one redirecting the thread to other matters.

are perfect too get back to us.

If one wishes to stand against democracy, equality and now, apparently, Jesus. One could pick no better dance partner than Wall St in all the annals of time.

"Since everything is interrelated, concern for the protection of nature is also incompatible with the justification of abortion. How can we genuinely teach the importance of concern for other vulnerable beings, however troublesome or inconvenient they may be, if we fail to protect a human embryo, even when its presence is uncomfortable and creates difficulties?"

So those of you who are cheering for the Encyclical do you also cheer for that thinking>

to a large majority of the religious right.

It obviously needs to reach many more, but its a good start.

And I'm so grateful to Pope Francis for this!!!

same things. What the Pope is doing is attempting to co-opt people into supporting his anti gay, anti choice and anti contraception positions. He knows that his Church is stoking all sorts of problems by opposing even the use of condoms to prevent HIV transmission. He is hoping to build a Pro Life, Anti Gay movement and that is what this encyclical is all about, as is his courting of the American religious right around anti choice, anti ACA and anti LGBT activism.

It's amazing that in a week when everyone can see what comes of bigotry, people here will still praise a bigot, 'for other things he says'. Good stuff. Really good stuff. You are grateful that someone attacks minority communities, women's rights, and also mentions the environment. How frightening your mindset is. Just frightening.

Francis said he hoped his effort would lead ordinary people in their daily lives and decision-makers at the Paris U.N. climate meetings to a wholesale change of mind and heart, saying "both the cry of the Earth and the cry of the poor" must now be heard.

"This vision of 'might is right' has engendered immense inequality, injustice and acts of violence against the majority of humanity, since resources end up in the hands of the first comer or the most powerful: the winner takes all," he writes. "Completely at odds with this model are the ideals of harmony, justice, fraternity and peace as proposed by Jesus."...

He praises a "less is more" lifestyle, one that shuns air conditioners and gated communities in favor of car pools, recycling and being in close touch with the poor and marginalized. He calls for courageous, radical and farsighted policies to transition the world's energy supply from fossil fuels to renewable sources, saying mitigation schemes like the buying and selling of carbon credits won't solve the problem and are just a "ploy which permits maintaining the excessive consumption of some countries and sectors."

He has a long way to go on many others, but he richly deserves high praise for this.

But Frank, you might want to mull over the effects of population growth, too. Just a little friendly advice.