Laudato Si
Someone asked me my opinion of the Pope’s recent encyclical letter,
Laudato Si which the Leftstream Press reported as being in support of the theory of Man-caused Global Flooding/Drought and Warming/Cooling.
I have not had the opportunity to read the encyclical, but friends of mine brought quotes from it to my attention. Hence this column is merely my flippant first impression, unmingled with any serious purpose of close study.
Without reading it I can say two things.
First, I am a loyal son of the Church and believe and follow everything she teaches authoritatively. No Catholic can dissent from the teachings of theology contained within the letter.
Sorry, halfcatholics and latitudinarians and Laodiceans. You knew what you were signing up for when you got baptized, abjured the devil and his angels, and the world and its false glamour, and vowed fidelity instead to the world’s creator. The World’s dark prince and the World’s bright maker are at odds, and you chose a side.
Second, these remarks I see here quoted out of context do not seem to fit the Leftfoot, sorry, the Leftwing narrative. It reads like what every orthodox Catholic theologian has said since Saint John was assumed to heaven, differing only in nuance and emphasis. That gives me pause for thought, and an excuse for mockery. Maybe the Pope is Catholic after all, and not Progressive? Hmm….
(155) Human ecology also implies another profound reality: the relationship between human life and the moral law, which is inscribed in our nature and is necessary for the creation of a more dignified environment. Pope Benedict XVI spoke of an “ecology of man,” based on the fact that “man too has a nature that he must respect and that he cannot manipulate at will.” It is enough to recognize that our body itself establishes us in a direct relationship with the environment and with other living beings. The acceptance of our bodies as God’s gift is vital for welcoming and accepting the entire world as a gift from the Father and our common home, whereas thinking that we enjoy absolute power over our own bodies turns, often subtly, into thinking that we enjoy absolute power over creation. Learning to accept our body, to care for it and to respect its fullest meaning, is an essential element of any genuine human ecology. Also, valuing one’s own body in its femininity or masculinity is necessary if I am going to be able to recognize myself in an encounter with someone who is different. In this way we can joyfully accept the specific gifts of another man or woman, the work of God the Creator, and find mutual enrichment. It is not a healthy attitude which would seek “to cancel out sexual difference because it no longer knows how to confront it.”
And:
Since everything is interrelated, concern for the protection of nature is also incompatible with the justification of abortion.
Hmm. Interesting. So ‘Go Green’ means ‘Pro-Life’. Sounds good to me.
And:
We were created with a vocation to work. The goal should not be that technological progress increasingly replace human work, for this would be detrimental to humanity. Work is a necessity, part of the meaning of life on this earth, a path to growth, human development and personal fulfilment. Helping the poor financially must always be a provisional solution in the face of pressing needs. The broader objective should always be to allow them a dignified life through work.
Which would seem to indicate that we preserve the ecology by creating jobs. Conservatives naturally favor conservation, as well as favoring the freedom misleadingly called capitalism, so we should have no disagreements here.
We have had enough of immorality and the mockery of ethics, goodness, faith and honesty. It is time to acknowledge that lighthearted superficiality has done us no good. When the foundations of social life are corroded, what ensues are battles over conflicting interests, new forms of violence and brutality, and obstacles to the growth of a genuine culture of care for the environment.
Got that? By refusing to bake a cake for a sodomite mockery of a wedding, or by praying outside of an abortion mill for the innocent and unborn lives sacrificed to Moloch within, we Catholics are doing our part to save the environment of the planet.
Time to repeal no-fault divorce and make contraceptive illegal again. We will talk about the gold standard and the popular election of senators once those ecological goals are reached.
One more:
A spirituality which forgets God as all-powerful and Creator is not acceptable. That is how we end up worshipping earthly powers, or ourselves usurping the place of God, even to the point of claiming an unlimited right to trample his creation underfoot. The best way to restore men and women to their rightful place, putting an end to their claim to absolute dominion over the earth, is to speak once more of the figure of a Father who creates and who alone owns the world. Otherwise, human beings will always try to impose their own laws and interests on reality.
Meaning that no atheist, agnostic, nor pagan can be a true environmentalist. Sorry, Greenies. Go Christ or go home. There is no other way to save the planet.
WHAT IS THE MORAL OF THE STORY?
The moral is that Political Correctness is factual incorrectness. Leftists lie. That is what they do. Orwell was not imitating the way Rightwingers talk.
Hence it will shock only those who are gullible enough to believe Leftstream Press agitprop organs that the Pope is Catholic, and he teaches and says what every Pope since Peter taught and said, and Antipopes of Avignon as well, not to mention every Eastern Metropolitan since before the Tenth Century.
We do not change with the times, we Catholics. That is a Progressive pathology.
We are not God. The earth was here before us and it has been given to us. This allows us to respond to the charge that Judaeo-Christian thinking, on the basis of the Genesis account which grants man “dominion” over the earth (cf. Gen 1:28), has encouraged the unbridled exploitation of nature by painting him as domineering and destructive by nature. This is not a correct interpretation of the Bible as understood by the Church. Although it is true that we Christians have at times incorrectly interpreted the Scriptures, nowadays we must forcefully reject the notion that our being created in God’s image and given dominion over the earth justifies absolute domination over other creatures. The biblical texts are to be read in their context, with an appropriate hermeneutic, recognizing that they tell us to “till and keep” the garden of the world (cf. Gen 2:15). “Tilling” refers to cultivating, ploughing or working, while “keeping” means caring, protecting, overseeing and preserving. This implies a relationship of mutual responsibility between human beings and nature. Each community can take from the bounty of the earth whatever it needs for subsistence, but it also has the duty to protect the earth and to ensure its fruitfulness for coming generations. “The earth is the Lord’s” (Ps 24:1); to him belongs “the earth with all that is within it” (Dt 10:14). Thus God rejects every claim to absolute ownership: “The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine; for you are strangers and sojourners with me” (Lev 25:23).
About John C Wright
John C. Wright is a practicing philosopher, a retired attorney, newspaperman, and newspaper editor, and a published author of science fiction. Once a Houyhnhnm, he was expelled from the august ranks of purely rational beings when he fell in love; but retains an honorary title.
