Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Laudato Si

Why is corporate American, big donors to political causes and the politicians they support so upset by the Pope's stance on Global Warming? I don't mean why do they disagree.  People disagree with the Pope on other things, but don't get all upset about it.  They think the pope is wrong on some other issue but otherwise get on with their lives.  Lots of other issues simply won't affect your life all that much and you get on with your decisions and think yourself fine in the church or outside it.  But global warming has gotten people heated up.  I think it is because it affects their money.  Some people simply worship money and want plenty more than they need.  At a certain point in your life as you age you move beyond birth control issues for yourself.  You never seem to move beyond concerns for money.  Any stance that says you have the money and should spend it to alleviate global warming makes lots of people upset.  Don't mess with their gods.  You might disagree with who causes global warming, but the pope's stance focuses on the fact that such warming affects the poor adversely, and that should be the concern of those who have access to funds (business and government) to do something about it.  It is possible to be rich and be a good person, or good Catholic for that matter, but the pope has added an extra box to check if you measure up.  Many people like to think that the poor make their own poverty by decisions they make.  The pope does not think that global warming was their decision.

2 comments:

  1. God bless the Pope and the stones he throws. Thank God for the large ripples they made in the consciences of the affluent. Being shaken awake is a good thing. Who cares if people agree or disagree - right is right, not a popularity contest.

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  2. Having moved to the US from Italy, honestly I don't understand American Catholics. Their first issue seems to be having a PRO-LIFE sticker on their cars. Their second, to have their guns, and making sure they can buy them with as little fuss as possible, since they are law-abiding citizen and do not like to make efforts to demonstrate it. Priests often preach about abortion and birth control. I hardly heard a priest preaching about helping the poors, rarely about the injustice of war, only twice en-passant about how un-Christian is the capital punishment (and one of those two times was because I scolded the priest for always talking about pro-life and abortion and never about anything else). And I never heard about one key teaching of our religion, which is loving our enemies.

    I have to admit that I am disgusted about this.

    Not that I am good Catholic (in fact I have a very hard and unsuccessful time loving my enemies, and a very bad attitude, as this comment demonstrates -- just to mention two things of the many I'm bad at). But at least I try first to be aware, and second to improve. And priests in Italy were more helpful in this regard, instead of just focusing on blaming the politicians who favored abortion....

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