By Marianne Lavelle, The Daily Climate
ARLINGTON, Va.—Dan Misleh, director of the Catholic Climate
Covenant, found himself facing a skeptic recently after he outlined the
coalition's preparations for Pope Francis' upcoming encyclical on global
warming.
The woman didn't doubt the science. She just wasn't sure of the
bishops.
Why wouldn't U.S. bishops record messages on climate change to
be played in all churches, just as they often do for annual Lenten fundraising
drives, she asked. Why not distribute cards in the pews, urging parishioners to
sign pledges to care for creation and the poor, through personal action and
advocacy on global warming?
"So what you're asking for," Misleh deadpanned,
"are miracles?"
Actually, Misleh expects Pope Francis' message on climate
change—anticipated in June or July—to resonate far beyond social
justice-oriented Catholics like the ones in his audience that day at an annual
symposium by the Peace and Justice Commission of the Diocese of Arlington, Va.,
in the suburbs of Washington, D.C.
The Catholic Climate
Covenant already is laying the groundwork for sermon outlines and news
conferences and events in the wake of the pope's encyclical, "to keep it
in the public eye for as long as we can," Misleh said.
A papal encyclical is meant to provide spiritual guidance to the
world's 1.1 billion Roman Catholics, but among advocates of climate action
hopes are high that this one will resonate far beyond the church. They are
hoping the pope's moral authority can help break the intractable global
political gridlock over reducing fossil fuel emissions.
That may be a lot to ask of a message designed to find
acceptance in a huge and diverse religious flock. But many have faith that this
particular pope—who is timing the letter to influence this year's crucial
climate treaty talks in Paris—has the leadership skills to deliver.
"Arguably, Pope Francis is one of the most interesting
moral voices on the planet," said Shaun Casey, the special representative
on religion and global affairs at the U.S. Department of State, in an
interview. "People are listening to him who never paid attention to a
Roman Catholic pope, because of his charisma and because of his courage.
"Here you have the leading voice in the largest Christian
tradition issuing an explicit call to engagement," Casey said. "I
think that's going to have a galvanizing effect on global politics. You cannot
ignore a moral issue when a pope of Pope Francis' stature focuses on that. I
think it's going to be huge."
Science
and faith
Among those eagerly awaiting the pope's message is Veerabhadran
Ramanathan, a pioneering atmospheric physicist at the Scripps Institution of
Oceanography, UC San Diego. Ramanathan, who discovered the super-greenhouse
effect of chlorofluorocarbons in 1975, co-authored an essay in Science
last fall calling
for religious leadership on climate change.
"Humanity is at a crossroads," the essay said.
"Natural and social scientists have done their part in documenting the
irreversible environmental damage we have inflicted, and in spelling out
specific mitigation actions. The transformational step may well be a massive
mobilization of public opinion by the Vatican and other religions for
collective action to safeguard the well-being of both humanity and the
environment."
In a recent interview, Ramanathan said that he believed
religious leaders can provide insight on climate change that neither scientists
nor national leaders could command. "Climate change has become sort of a
moral and ethical issue," said Ramanathan in a recent interview.
"We
are asking people to change their behavior. I think that religious leaders have
much more authority to speak about that than scientists or political
leaders."
Although Ramanathan said he has no idea what Pope Francis will
say on global warming, he is closer to the process than most, as a member of a
little-known but prestigious group of scientists, the Pontifical Academy of the
Sciences.
Members of the non-sectarian Academy of 80 scientists, which includes
several Nobel laureates, receive lifetime appointments from the Vatican, but do
not take direction from the church. Their mission is to promote progress in
science, and to stimulate an interdisciplinary approach.
Ramanathan, who was appointed to his post by Pope John Paul II,
took the task to heart last year and convened what he said was an unprecedented
joint meeting of both the Academy's natural and social scientists, as well as
philosophers and theologians, to focus on sustainable development, climate
change and economic justice.
Participants in the four-day workshop in May 2014 agreed on a
statement pointing
out the disruption caused by fossil fuel use at the heart of the global energy
system, and calling for cooperative, collective action to find a more
sustainable engine of development.
At the end of the meeting, Ramanathan said they had an
opportunity to brief Pope Francis, a meeting he expected would be short in any
case. But because of his busy schedule that day, the pope actually met the
group in the parking lot. They were allowed to say two sentences—the
ultimate “elevator” speech.
“I cheated. I gave three sentences," Ramanathan recalls.
"I said this entire gathering is concerned about climate change, and there
are 3 billion poor people who had little to do with climate pollution who will
suffer its worst effects. Because of that, I said we would like to ask people
to be good stewards of the planet."
Pope Francis is expected to build on the statements his
predecessors made on the environment, especially Pope John Paul II's plea in
his 1990 World Day of Peace speech that Catholics regard the natural world as
God's creation: "We cannot continue to use the goods of the Earth as we
have in the past," he said. Pope Benedict, who had solar panels put on the
Vatican, said in 2010, "If we want justice and peace, we must protect the
habitat that sustains us."
Walter Grazer, who served as the director of the U.S. Conference
of Catholic Bishops' environmental justice program from 1993 to 2007, said it
is important to see the pope's upcoming statement in the context of this
history. Previous papal teachings on the environment, as well as many
statements by the U.S. bishops on climate change, draw on the creation stories
of the Catholic tradition, in which humans are stewards of the world of peace
and harmony created by God.
"It's both in our scripture, and in our theology; Pope
Francis is not going to be coming from outer space," Grazer said. "He
has got such a fabulous way of cutting through all the jargon. "He will
have a way of saying it that I think will be unique, but he's going to be
following up on these themes from Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict."
Vatican-watchers see signals that Pope Francis plans to offer
the strongest papal statement on the environment yet. In a homily he offered
last November on All Saints' Day, Pope Francis gave a possible
preview of his encyclical when
he decried environmental destruction and the culture of waste.
"We are capable of devastating the Earth far better than
the angels," he said. "And this is exactly what we are doing, this is
what we do: we destroy creation, we devastate lives, we devastate cultures, we
devastate values, we ravage hope.”
How
far will the pope go
The pope must steer clear of pronouncements that are seen as
overtly political, or he will undercut the support he has so far maintained
among conservatives in the church.
In a speech delivered
last month at
Saint Patrick’s Pontifical University, in Maynooth, Ireland, a Vatican official
said Pope Francis’ agenda is not “greening the Church or the world.”
“It is a vision of care and protection that embraces the human
person and the human environment in all possible dimensions,” said Cardinal
Peter Turkson, who gave the speech and helped Pope Francis with the first draft
of his encyclical.
Cardinal Turkson repeatedly states in the speech that the pope’s
foray into environmental matters is biblically – not politically –
rooted.
Samuel Gregg, research director of the conservative
Michigan-based Catholic think tank, the Acton Institute for the Study of
Religion and Liberty, said he doubts that the pope will weigh in on the science
of climate change or on any particular political course of action.
"Individual Catholics—lay people, as well as bishops—have a
variety of views on the science of climate change, and as citizens, they're
quite entitled to hold those views," he said.
"It's not the church's
responsibility, nor does it have the authority to say that Catholics must
support this treaty, that treaty, or any treaty. It doesn't fall into the
area of faith and morals. And this is often a distinction not understood
outside the Catholic Church, or even by a good number of Catholics themselves."
The Acton Institute counts young clerics and religious people
from the developing world among attendees at its annual seminars on the virtues
of unfettered free markets. (A sampling of upcoming Acton University
courses: "The Moral Case for Economic Growth," "The Invisible
Hand from Adam to Adam Smith," and "The Spiritual Dangers of Doing
Good.")
Kishore Jayabalan, director of Acton's Rome office, already has
laid the groundwork for courteous disagreement with Francis. "It is one
kind of problem if a Catholic disagrees with papal teaching on the Trinity or
abortion; that Catholic’s eternal soul would be considered at risk," he
wrote in a recent blog.
"It is an altogether different kind of problem if a
Catholic disagrees with the pope on his diplomatic efforts or environmental
views… The Church wisely respects differences of opinion on such matters."
Prepared
for opposition
Catholics who believe the church has an important role to play
on climate change are prepared for opposition to the pope's message.
"Some people are going to gloat: 'The Pope has finally
joined the Democratic party,'" Misleh said at the Arlington symposium
earlier this year. "Others are going to grumble. They're going to attack
the pope: 'He's divisive. He's from Argentina. What do you expect?' Or they're
going to try to minimize the importance of an encyclical letter, which is really
hard to do if you know what an encyclical letter is."
"I hope a lot more people will say, 'Wow, I didn't even
know the church cared about this issue.'" Misleh said.
Marianne
Lavelle is a staff writer for The Daily Climate. Follow her on Twitter @mlavelles. The Daily Climate is
an independent, foundation-funded news service covering energy, the environment
and climate change. Find us on Twitter @TheDailyClimate or email editor Brian Bienkowski at
bbienkowski [at] EHN.org. Find more Daily Climate stories in the TDC Newsroom
