According to the Guardian’s inside sources, Pope Francis will likely instruct 1.2 billion Catholics to act on Climate Change with a new Encyclical or other important document. The charismatic leader has voiced his social and environmental concerns before. Earlier in 2014, he addressed a crowd in Rome with, “if we destroy Creation, Creation will destroy us!” He went further by calling the destruction of the rainforest a “sin”. He initiated a five-day summit where experts explored how the Catholic church could work on climate and sustainability. Last October Pope Francis said, ““The monopolising of lands, deforestation, the appropriation of water, inadequate agro-toxics are some of the evils that tear man from the land of his birth. Climate change, the loss of biodiversity and deforestation are already showing their devastating effects in the great cataclysms we witness.”
His bishops spoke out at the UN climate talks in Lima calling for “an end to the fossil fuel era.” The Chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and Social Sciences, Bishop Marcelo Sanchez Soronado, has said, “today solid scientific evidence exists that global climate is changing and that human activity based on the use of fossil materials contributes decisively to this trend.”
The pope is by no means the only spiritual leader speaking out. Spiritual guides from indigenous elders to mainstream religions including notables like Nobel Laureate Desmond Tutu and the Dalai Lama have voiced the moral importance of sustainability, caring for the planet and mitigating climate change, but there is also a backlash from conservative evangelicals waiting for the apocalypse and their “rapture”. They seem to be sure they’ll be swept up to yet another “just” reward with “heavenly pie in the sky when they die”. Oh, me; Oh my!
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/27/pope-francis-edict-climate-change-us-rightwing
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/12/28/3607083/pope-francis-climate-secret-weapon-next-year/