His Holiness Popes All Over Fossil Fuels, Free Market

As far as Christian history goes, we are currently living in what will undoubtedly be remembered as a low point.  The Church is fractured.  Attendance at Sunday service is down.  Christian morality and ideals are being co-opted and bastardized by western governments.  Family values are being aggressively shredded by the media.  Children are being sexualized at young ages.  Abortions, though in decline, are still claiming the lives and futures of innocent children by the thousands. Christians abroad are persecuted and killed by scores and hundreds daily for their faith.

(Image: dailymail.co.uk)

With so much darkness holding sway this world, it’s a great blessing that the leader of the oldest and largest Christian denomination has the courage to address the true evils of our time: climate change, and capitalism.

The Catholic community across the globe now must grapple with the official release of a 180-page encyclical from Pope Francis, a draft of which was leaked Monday.  The papal manifesto, entitled Laudato Si’ (Praise Be to You) calls for vast, sweeping political and social changes to combat “climate change,” (the same weasel-word crafted to ensure no matter what the sky is doing it can always be blamed on human activity), which the Pontiff calls “a global problem with grave implications: environmental, social, economic, political and for the distribution of goods.”

Maybe it’ll sound less horrifying with a Papal celebrity endorsement. (image: politichicks.com)

And it only gets better from there.  Parts of the encyclical call for global wealth redistribution, presumably to be orchestrated by a singular, unified governing body – and judging by the nature of his recommendations, a constitutional, free republic is likely not what he has in mind.

Francis claims economic inequality across nations is closely tied to climate change, with the developed countries of the world being the prime offenders. According to him, these developed nations have incurred a debt to the rest of the planet. He writes: “The developed countries ought to help pay this debt by significantly limiting their consumption of nonrenewable energy and by assisting poorer countries to support policies and programs of sustainable development.”

So besides dreaming of a utopian world government that somehow functions on Marxist principles (miraculously perhaps), what’s so alarming about the Pope going green?  It’s in vogue with the young and hip generation, and this Pope is known for his outreach to the younger more progressive wing of his flock.  This move was par for the course.  Why should we be concerned?

Despite calls for government to limit their use, nowhere does the Pope’s manifesto appear to address the role of  nonrenewable fossil fuels in lifting millions of people, and entire third world countries with them, out of poverty.  Nowhere either does His Holiness admit that the “developed” countries of the world he so fervently chastizes also tend to be representative, democratic republics where the free market is allowed to thrive, nor that the “poorer countries” of the world happen to be largely made up of economically stifling socialist utopias and petty dictatorships. Nowhere does he rebuke or even deign to mention those dictatorships’ open and frequently brutal persecution of Christians.

Instead, Francis has decided to join the communistic green movement in blaming developed countries for poisoning the planet, calling on authorities to put “measures” in place to curb the destruction.  “The earth,” he writes, “is beginning to look more and more like an immense pile of filth…Frequently no measures are taken until after people’s health has been irreversibly affected.”

[adinserter block=”3″]What’s fundamentally wrong with the Pope’s vision is not that he wants people across the globe to take stewardship of the planet, or that he wants us to feel a sense of responsibility to our fellow human beings in poverty.  Forget for a moment even the obvious rub that as a lifelong clergyman, Francis likely knows nothing about climate, or economics.

The fault in the Pope’s vision (let this sink in) is that he wants government to be in charge of it all.  “We need to reject a magical conception of the market, which would suggest that the problems can be solved simply by an increase in the profits of companies or individuals,” writes Francis in a pointed rebuke of capitalism.[adinserter block=”1″]

I pretty much just made the Church a subsidiary of the UN! Seemed like the Christian thing to do.  (Image: bog.cleanenergy.com).

Instead of leading people of faith away from things of this world and toward a relationship with God, ostensibly the function of the papacy, Francis has repented.  He has aligned himself and his Church with a worldly power, namely the UN, in the narrative that mankind – and the free world in particular – are the cause of all of the planet’s ills and inequalities.  He has shown his hand as a proponent of the principles set forth in Agenda 21, from which inevitably flow erasure of national sovereignty, virtual elimination of private property rights and curtailment of personal liberty.

The Pope’s vision is not only at odds with the natural human state of liberty, it is at odds with the very message of Christ Himself.  While the Bible documents Jesus and his disciples teaching charity as a personal act of love, Pope Francis would have charity relegated to a confiscatory act on the part of governments, nations and international conspirators.  Are you feeling the love yet?

This is a direction Catholics should hesitate to follow.  Members of the Church are now in the awkward position of having to dissociate the Vatican’s political doctrine from the tenets of their actual faith.  This promises to further fracture the Church, and threatens to lead many faithful astray, from a divine citizenship and heritage, into the uncaring embrace of the state.

Nice one, Your Holiness.  You couldn’t have picked a worse lot to fall in with, nor a worse time in history to do so.

By Anthony James Kidwell – DontComply.com