Pope Francis recruits Naomi Klein in climate change battle

[mentalfloss]

Pope Francis recruits Naomi Klein in climate change battle | World news | The Guardian
Latest US news, world news, sports and opinion from the Guardian | theguardian.com | The Guardian

She is one of the world’s most high-profile social activists and a ferocious critic of 21st-century capitalism. He is one of the pope’s most senior aides and a professor of climate change economics. But this week the secular radical will join forces with the Catholic cardinal in the latest move by Pope Francis to shift the debate on global warming.

Naomi Klein and Cardinal Peter Turkson are to lead a high-level conference on the environment, bringing together churchmen, scientists and activists to debate climate change action. Klein, who campaigns for an overhaul of the global financial system to tackle climate change, told the Observer she was surprised but delighted to receive the invitation from Turkson’s office.

“The fact that they invited me indicates they’re not backing down from the fight. A lot of people have patted the pope on the head, but said he’s wrong on the economics. I think he’s right on the economics,” she said, referring to Pope Francis’s recent publication of an encyclical on the environment.

Release of the document earlier this month thrust the pontiff to the centre of the global debate on climate change, as he berated politicians for creating a system that serves wealthy countries at the expense of the poorest.

Activists and religious leaders will gather in Rome on Sunday, marching through the Eternal City before the Vatican welcomes campaigners to the conference, which will focus on the UN’s impending climate change summit.

Protesters have chosen the French embassy as their starting point – a Renaissance palace famed for its beautiful frescoes, but more significantly a symbol of the United Nations climate change conference, which will be hosted by Paris this December.

Nearly 500 years since Galileo was found guilty of heresy, the Holy See is leading the rallying cry for the world to wake up and listen to scientists on climate change. Multi-faith leaders will walk alongside scientists and campaigners, hailing from organisations including Greenpeace and Oxfam Italy, marching to the Vatican to celebrate the pope’s tough stance on environmental issues.

The imminent arrival of Klein within the Vatican walls has raised some eyebrows, but the involvement of lay people in church discussions is not without precedent.

Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, delivered the keynote address at a Vatican summit in April on climate change and poverty. Anticipating the encyclical, he said he was depending on the pope’s “moral voice and moral leadership” to speed up action.

When it came to the presentation of the document itself, the pontiff picked a five-strong panel, including a Rome school teacher and a leading scientist. Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, who heads the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, used the time to give churchmen a lesson in climate science.

The pope has upset some conservatives for drawing people from outside the clergy into the heart of the debate, while critics have also argued the Catholic church should not be involved in an issue that should be left to presidents and policy-makers.

But Klein said the pope’s position as a “moral voice” in the world – and leader of 1.2 billion Catholics – gives him the unique ability to unite campaigners fighting for a common goal. “The holistic view of the encyclical should be a catalyst to bring together the twin economic and climate crises, instead of treating them separately,” she said.

Much of the pope’s discourse focuses on the need to give developing countries a greater voice in climate change negotiations, a view that sits uncomfortably among some in developed nations. “There are a lot of people who are having a lot of trouble in realising there is a voice with such global authority from the global south. That’s why we’re getting this condescending view, of ‘leave the economics to us’,” said Klein.

She views the rise of Francis as an environmental campaigner as marking a welcome shift not only in the international sphere but also at the Holy See: “We’re seeing the power base within the Vatican shift, with a Ghanaian cardinal [Turkson] and an Argentine pope. They’re doing something very brave.”

While the upcoming conference is centred on the pope’s encyclical, delegates will also be looking ahead to decisive international meetings this year. Before the Paris talks comes a UN summit, where states are due to commit to sustainable development goals, which will inevitably affect the environment.

The pope will fly into New York on the first day of the meeting and address the UN general assembly, reinforcing his message and emboldening countries worst affected by climate change.

For Klein, the papal visit will mark a much-needed change in the way negotiators discuss the environment. “There’s a way in which UN discourse sanitises the extent to which this is a moral crisis,” she said. “It cries out for a moral voice.”

Pope Francis recruits Naomi Klein in climate change battle | World news | The Guardian

 

[B00Mer]

Who is Naomi Klein? Never heard of her before today MentalFloss.

"Climate Change, the first generation to see it's affects, the last generation to be able to do something about it." - President Obama

 

[CDNBear]

So this is what it sounds like, when doves cry...

Two powerful religions, with their respective high priests have come together.

Religions sometimes makes strange bedfellows, lol

 

[mentalfloss]

Who is Naomi Klein? Never heard of her before today MentalFloss.

"Climate Change, the first generation to see it's affects, the last generation to be able to do something about it." - President Obama

She's an author of a few books, one about the dangers of advertising and I think another about Bush. She's sorta in the same camp as Noam Chomsky when it comes to foreign policy and they probably both sit in the same spot on the political spectrum.

She's recently jumped on the climate change bandwagon.

 

[DaSleeper]

This sure throws a monkey wrench in Papal infallibility and might be enough to get Flossy to return to the fold....say wot?;-);-)

 

[taxslave]

So this is what it sounds like, when doves cry...

Two powerful religions, with their respective high priests have come together.

Religions sometimes makes strange bedfellows, lol

maybe the wackjobs just find security in numbers?

 

[CDNBear]

This sure throws a monkey wrench in Papal infallibility and might be enough to get Flossy to return to the fold....say wot?;-);-)

Well you know, the Church is a joke, until it embraces one of your religious tenets, then it's awesome.

 

[Sal]

Papal infallibility is a dogma of the Catholic Church that states that, in virtue of the promise of Jesus to Peter, the Pope is preserved from the possibility of error "When, in the exercise of his office as shepherd and teacher of all Christians, in virtue of his supreme apostolic authority, he defines a doctrine ...

 

[CDNBear]

Papal infallibility is a dogma of the Catholic Church that states that, in virtue of the promise of Jesus to Peter, the Pope is preserved from the possibility of error "When, in the exercise of his office as shepherd and teacher of all Christians, in virtue of his supreme apostolic authority, he defines a doctrine ...

Plagiarizing is frowned upon here.

 

[gerryh]

This sure throws a monkey wrench in Papal infallibility and might be enough to get Flossy to return to the fold....say wot?;-);-)

Papal infallibility refers to things of faith. If he had said that God came to him and told him this that and the other thing about AGW, you just might have an argument.


However, Having the leader of over a billion people on their side is a real coup for the truthers.

 

[CDNBear]

However, Having the leader of over a billion people on their side is a real coup for the truthers.

Ain't that the truth.

 

[DaSleeper]

Papal infallibility refers to things of faith. If he had said that God came to him and told him this that and the other thing about AGW, you just might have an argument.


However, Having the leader of over a billion people on their side is a real coup for the truthers.

That comment of mine was tongue in cheek .......but I suppose you knew that ;-)

 

[mentalfloss]

This sure throws a monkey wrench in Papal infallibility and might be enough to get Flossy to return to the fold....say wot?;-);-)

Gross.

No this is just a sign that a religion needs to evolve to remain relevant.

 

[CDNBear]

No this is just a sign that a religion needs to evolve to remain relevant.

Just like the Church of the AGW. We've seen a lot of evolution from them on these hallowed pages, lol.

 

[DaSleeper]

Just like the Church of the AGW. We've seen a lot of evolution from them on these hallowed pages, lol.

They even changed names a few times in an attempt to make it more palatable:roll:

 

[CDNBear]

They even changed names a few times in an attempt to make it more palatable:roll:

You mean relevant.

 

[DaSleeper]

You mean relevant.

That too!

 

[CDNBear]

That too!

Shush, now we're just being salty, lol.

 

[mentalfloss]

How priests are responding to the pope’s climate-change encyclical.
Slate Magazine - Politics, Business, Technology, and the Arts

Catholic Priest
The New York Times reported that not many parish priests mentioned the pope’s new emphasis on the environment in their Sunday remarks.
Photo by ViktorCap/iStock

In the rush to politicize Pope Francis’ encyclical on the environment, most media outlets focused on thereactions of two high-profile conservative American Catholics: Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio. While it’s true that U.S. Republicans are absolutely critical for truly bold global action on climate, they’re not who the pope was primarily talking to.

Instead, liberal Americans within the Catholic tradition—especially those who may sometimes think they’re already doing a pretty good job living green—are the ones to watch. Without their enthusiastic support, Francis’ inspiring sermon against a “throwaway culture” may fizzle—at the very moment when it could inspire real change.

But the road ahead for the church’s progressive wing won’t be easy. Thepope repudiates the slow, iterative approach that’s allowed climate change to escalate decades after the basic consequences were first widely known. In his message, the pope called for a complete “rethink” of humanity’s relationship to the environment, warning that “halfway measures simply delay the inevitable disaster.” When it comes to climate change, we simply don’t have that much time. Only a truly radical response—like a global activist movement demanding a revolution in the way our society operates—may give us enough wiggle room to escape the worst climate impacts. With the pope’s blessing, the Catholic Church’s liberal wing may be primed to lead such a movement—or not.

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“It’s a game-changing moment for the church,” said Matt Malone, a Jesuit priest and editor in chief ofAmerica, a weekly Jesuit magazine. By framing the environment as a core Catholic advocacy issue, “the highest teaching authority in the church is saying this is now a priority.”

On Monday, however, theNew York Times reported that not many parish priests mentioned the pope’s new emphasis on the environment in their Sunday remarks. The Washington Post speculated that the pope’s message may ring especially hollow in the United States, because the pope’s environmental ethic of “communitarianism”—a “we’re all in it together” mentality—cuts to the core of American individualism.

But it’s clear the pope’s message is resonating, even if not among every single American Catholic. In California, Gov. Jerry Brown, who once studied to be a Jesuit priest,lamented our “deep obsession” with “material stuff.” Martin O’Malley, the long-shot presidential candidate, cited the pope’s call when he announced an ambitious plan to power America with 100 percent renewable energy by 2050. Deke Arndt, a practicing Catholic and one of the U.S. government’s foremost climate scientists, was brought to tears while reading the pope’s message.

As a former Catholic and a writer on climate change, the pope’s letter felt a bit likethat one Seinfeld episode for me. The encyclical was addressed to “every person living on the planet,” but I felt like he was speaking to me personally.

I grew up in a conservative Kansas town and went to a Jesuit university with a rich history of activism, almost by accident—Saint Louis University was the closest Catholic institution with a program in meteorology. Growing up, my parents encouraged us to volunteer, but my town was so small it was hard to really be aware of inequality and injustice at bigger scales. At college, I participated in alternative spring break trips focused on immigration and homelessness in Texas and Colorado. Our campus ministry office led annual trips to Ft. Benning, Georgia, that encouraged students to engage in nonviolent civil resistance to protest the 1989 assassination of Jesuit priests in El Salvador. During the run-up to the Iraq war in 2003, my professor for a core theology class offered us extra credit for “observing” a big protest downtown.

After I graduated, I spent a year with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, and briefly considered becoming a priest. I chosemy graduate program in climate because of its emphasis on addressing impacts on the poor and wrote my masters thesis on “the social justice of weather.” In 2013, my wife and I gave up flying to cut our carbon footprint. This year, we moved to a smaller house to try to cut back even more. Yet I feel like I’m nowhere even close to the complete “rethink” that Francis calls for.

Now, the most famous Jesuit in the world is trying to do for the entire planet what college did for me: inspire people to think about how everyday individual actions, multiplied millions of times, could add up to a “bold cultural revolution,” in Francis’ words.

To try to see what it might take for this “game-changing” Catholic environmental movement to emerge, I spoke with a few of my former priests.

John Whitney, a Jesuit and pastor at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Seattle, was the most optimistic. “I think this is the first time, honestly, in my lifetime as a priest, 21 years now, that I’ve seen this kind of enthusiasm,” he told me.

Because Francis has decided to live a relatively simple lifestyle as pope—he takes the bus and lives in a small apartment—Whitney thinks his words are more meaningful. “This is not the pope playing science. This a fundamental part of our faith, and it requires us to act. It doesn’t require us to pray harder, it requires us to act on our prayers,” Whitney said. “It’s a call to a universal movement.”

In his church, Whitney wants to launch an educational and activist campaign to bring attention to climate change—but his vision doesn’t always align with his parishioners’. In one meeting of his parish council, a member suggested installing electric vehicle charging stations in the parking lot. Whitney balked. “We have a large population of very wealthy people [in our parish],” he said. “Is that really what we want to do, put in these expensive things for the people that are driving their Teslas?”

Instead, he’s trying to steer the conversation toward political advocacy on issues like coal transportation and offshore oil and gas drilling, and he’s challenging his congregation to consume less.

Whitney, like most priests I spoke with, rejected the partisan politics attached to the climate issue. “If you actually read what the pope is saying, some of these values are incredibly conservative,” he said. “The true conservative tradition is not excessive consumption—it’s the golden rule and taking care of each other.”

After decades of focusing on issues of marriage and abortion, the pope’s reframing of the Catholic position on the environment as a “life issue” was smart, especially for progressive priests in conservative parts of the country, said Michael Mulvany, the pastor at Corpus Christi Catholic Church in Lawrence, Kansas. James Conley, bishop of Lincoln, Nebraska, agreed. “Catholics can’t be bound to any political party—we have to follow the dictates of truth on every issue,” Conley said in an email. Conley is the relatively progressive new leader of what’s been considered the most conservative diocese in the country. His predecessor excommunicated members of a group that was advocating for an expanded role of women in the church, for example. Priests like him face an uphill battle in talking about climate change on Sundays.

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Dave Zegar, pastor at St. Andrew Catholic Church in Portland, Oregon, has the opposite problem. In a deeply liberal part of the country, his church—one of the most progressive Catholic churches in the country—is facing headwinds from a conservative bishop. Members of his parish held a press conference last week to celebrate the pope’s letter, and one wrote an op-ed in the local newspaper. In 2013, Zegar’s bishop attempted to block members of his parish from holding a banner in Portland’s pride parade, but he’s not sure whether his bishop will try to stop their actions on climate. On Tuesday, the bishop met with Portland’s mayor, Charlie Hales, who was invited to the Vatican for a meeting on climate next month, but he hasn’t yet made a public statement on the encyclical.

The next chapter in this story will be the pope’s first visit to the United States in September, which will includethe first address to a joint session of Congress.

How priests are responding to the pope’s climate-change encyclical.