Pope issues environmentally themed encyclical

So last thursday, Pope Francis released his second encyclical, Laudato Si which is officially dated on 24 May, the Solemnity of Pentecost (it is common for papal encyclicals to be officially dated on a date other than the date on which it is actually released, usually the date mentioned is a solemnity or a feast day), which is the first encyclical to be centered on environmental issues. Previous encyclicals have dealt with the environment - most recently Benedict XVI's 2009 encyclical Caritas in Veritate, which is cited often in Laudato Si - in the wider context of Catholic Social Teaching, but this is the first to be completely dedicated to the topic. While most encyclicals are officially entitled in Latin (another relatively recent encyclical that's entitled in a non-Latin language is Mit Brennder Sorge which was entitled in German and condemned many of the beliefs promoted by the Nazis, from what I understand the Church had that encyclical smuggled into Germany by priests on motorcycles), Laudato Si is an Italian title and there is no Latin translation of the encyclical up on the Vatican website (perhaps it was too difficult to translate some of the content into Latin, If I remember correctly there were some difficulties in figuring out how to say somethings in Latin in Caritas in Veritate).

The encyclical presents an "holistic" human ecology where man's relationship to God, to his fellow man, and to his home, the earth are all interrelated. A lot of attention has been given to how the encyclical deals with climate change, but it also mentions things like the loss of water and biodiversity. Like previous popes, Pope Francis states that there is a moral obligation to take good care of creation and says that technological advancements alone can not solve environmental issues, there is a need for people to change their lifestyles and be less consumeristic.

A lot of conservative Catholics - at least in the U.S. - had expressed concerns that some could use Pope Francis' encyclical as a way to promote population control in order to protect the environment but the Pope explicitly rejects population control and uses the encyclical to condemn abortion and embryonic stem cell research as being inconsistent with efforts to care for the environment and protect animals saying that "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 for concern for other vulnerable beings, however troubling and inconvenient they may be, if we fail to protect a human embryo, even when its presence is uncomfortable and creates difficulties?" and "There is a tendency to justify transgressing all boundaries when experimentation is carried out on living human embryos....We forget that the inalienable worth of a human being transcends his or her degree of development.[W]hen technology disregards the great ethical principles, it ends up considering any practice whatsoever as licit.”

It's fun to watch uber conservatives freak out about this encyclical. It's nothing all that new coming out of the Vatican. Benedict acknowledged climate change and even installed solar panels on most roofs of the Vatican. Climate change is real and to reject it or to suggest that somehow it's a non-issue is absolutely idiotic. Maybe the Pope will help change the minds of enough constituents in the States that representatives will be forced to take it more seriously.

I don't know about you, but I personally trust the catholic church on all matters related to science. Second only to my 5 year old niece.

@ferrari2001: My prediction was that this encyclical would be quite similar to Caritas in Veritate's segments on the environment and that seems to be the case, it seems like Caritas in Veritate is referenced a lot in Laudato Si. I heard that in this document Francis cites Benedict XVI and John Paul II eighty-something times.

@HoolaHoopMan: What exactly are you even trying to say??? lol

I hope so, but I think there are two big problems. The first is that a lot of climate change opposition comes from Evangelical Protestants, who won't care what the Pope has to say (at least not from a perspective as a religious authority). The second is that to a large extent I think climate change is seen as a political issue (not completely true because I know many churches stress moral obligations to safeguard the environment), which means it'll be harder for a religious figure like the Pope to sway people.

But, at least conservative pundits responding to this will give some good material for The Daily Show.

http://www.theonion.com/article/frustrated-republicans-argue-pope-should-leave-sci-50701

And how many academic papers does the Vatican publish each year?

I don't believe in any of this magical nonsense with the church, it's "God", etc, but I really like this pope. He is taking an institution and its people who pride themselves on ignorance and irrationality and slowly introducing reason into the equation. Now, it's obvious that he cannot go too far, because he's basically just as irrational as the rest of them, but he seems to be embracing at least some common sense.

@HoolaHoopMan: I don't get my science from church, but I approve of the fact that the church is getting their science from scientists.

Tongue in cheek, don't gerg yourself.

As far as it comes to most denominations, I agree that they are ahead of their Evangelical and Protestant counterparts. But I'm certainly not going to call them a wholly scientific entity with their stance on homosexuality, procreation, and women's reproductive health. That's more or less what I was getting at. But I guess I have to take what I can get, right?

@HoolaHoopMan: There is a Pontifical Academy of the Sciences, their publications can be accessed at this webpage.