El Papa Disappoints, So Far
The View from the Middle
Don’t get me wrong. I love Catholics. Most of my family is Catholic, and I revere
the office of the Pope. But when the
Pope gave his first speech in America with the President of the United States
at his side, he had the opportunity to talk about a plethora of spiritual and
religious issues. And what did he open
with – global warming?
I agree that we have a
responsibility to be good stewards of our planet, but global warming is a
theory and an area where the Pope speaks with the least amount of
authority. Even if you agree with all
those who suggest that man is the problem and New York will be under water by
next week, wouldn’t the Pope have been better off talking about this issue with
China and India?
There are huge issues in this
country where the Pope has much more credibility and where I think he could
make a big difference. The United States,
for example, still aborts over a million babies a year and some in a most
barbaric fashion called partial birth abortion.
Given that the Pope is familiar with the bible passage that suggests
that God knew us while we were still in our mother’s womb, he could have begun
to address this issue immediately. He could
have and should have taken a stand to protect the voiceless unborn children of
God, but he didn’t.
Religious liberty is under assault
in the US. The Little Sisters of the
Poor and Notre Dame are being forced to provide abortifacients, which cause an
abortion to occur, for the people who work for them. Make no mistake; these are not your mother’s birth
control pills. They cause a fertilized
egg to be rejected by the mother’s womb, which is contrary to the Catholic
Church’s teachings. El Papa could have
brought that subject up in front of the President and millions of Americans
watching on TV, but he chose to highlight global warming.
The Catholic Church believes in the
traditional definition of marriage.
While no one would suggest that the gay community should be persecuted,
the Church should be standing up for a traditional definition of marriage and
for all who embrace it. The Pope should
stand with the bakers who serve gays everyday in their shops, but find that
providing a wedding cake for them would cause them to abandon their religious beliefs. This doesn’t violate the civil rights of
that gay couple (a cake will be provided by someone else) but it upholds the
religious liberty of the baker. The Pope
could have started that discussion or many, many more, but he didn’t.
El Papa has another big opportunity
to stand up for Catholics and other Christians everywhere when he addresses
Congress tomorrow. If he only discusses
global warming, the minimum wage and universal health care, I will consider
this visit a bust.
The word "theory" in science does not carry the same meaning as it does in laymen's terms. In science, a theory is not a guess or an idea, but rather a well-substantiated explanation of why a thing occurs, based on a large body of evidence that is repeatedly tested and confirmed. Calling something a theory in science is not belittling its importance--you are basically saying that it is as proven as anything can be.
ReplyDeleteAs to the Pope's authority to speak to climate change, the Pope is also a scientist with a degree in Chemistry. The United States is the second largest emitter of CO2 in the world, behind China (India is 4th, behind Europe). Two things that the United States has that China doesn't? Lawmakers some of whom profess to be Catholic, and the 4th largest population of Catholics in the world.
So why are the polar ice caps still here? Why have we not seen temperature increases for the last 18 years. Climate is a very complicated science and trying to predict it is not a perfect one. Most if not all of the predictions from Global Warming (oops, Climate Change) have been proven wrong, just ask Al Gore. Better yet, ask Charles Krauthammer.
DeleteAlso, the pope is hardly a scientist. His academic strengths are in Literature and Psychology. He states that he was a “chemical technician” in his biography and little is published about the strength of that position. My position is that no one knows the full truth about Global Warming or Climate Change or whatever you want to call it, but if I was looking for substantiation one way or the other, Pope Francis would not be first on my list.
He would however be high on my list if I was going to research moral issues. He has the chance to make big differences on big issues like abortion, but if he doesn’t show up for those discussions he won’t have any impact at all.
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing". -
ReplyDeleteEdmund Burke
Very astute point. I couldn't have said it better myself!!
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