The Pope and Climate Change
September 29th, 2007 | by Jones of the Nile |It’s still nearly eight months away, but word is that Pope Benedict XVI will use his first visit to the United Nations to urge a commitment to climate change. Courtesy of The Independent, the address to the UN….
“will act as the centrepiece of a US visit scheduled for next April - the first by Benedict XVI, and the first Papal visit since 1999 - and round off an environmenta l blitz at the Vatican, in which the Pope has personally led moves to emphasize green issues based on the belief that climate change is affecting the poorest people on the planet, and the principle that believers have a duty to “protect creation.”
Earlier this month, the Vatican announced that it would become the first fully carbon-neutr al state in the world. Vatican City will offset its carbon footprint by planting a forest in Hungary, and installing solar panels on the roof of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. The Pope, meanwhile, will still likely wear his red prada loafers.
This is all well and good, but one can’t help but be suspicious that the Pope is a-comin’ during an Election year. I’m sure the lean, mean religious right machine is salivating at the photo-op possibilitie s here, and God knows that groups like Priests for Life, the Catholic League and the Eagle Forum will be lobbying the Pope hard to speak out on abortion and gay marriage — with the specific intent of influencing next year’s election. Word has it, in fact, that the Pope is planning to also visit Massachusett s as part of the trek, the only state that legally recognizes gay marriage. Think he’ll say something about gay marriage? (Answer: Is the Pope Catholic?!)
I can’t help but be reminded of President Bush’s visit to the Vatican in early 2004, when he awarded Pope John Paul II a freedom medal, a largely ceremonial gesture that many saw as nothing more than trying to shake the Catholics from the voting trees. It made for a nice photo that appeared on the cover of just about every Catholic newspaper in the United States, and furthered the bogus media talking point that Bush was the preferred candidate of practicing Catholics.
Will Republicans pull the same trick during Benedict’s visit in 2008? I’ll bet my life savings on it. But hell, at least the Pope is throwing us progressives a bone on climate change. That’s probably as good as it gets with this Pontiff, who has already shown his penchant for silencing theologians, marginalizin g gays and lesbians from the church, and suggesting that all other Christian churches are inferior to Roman Catholicism.
Tags: BIO, catholic, Catholic League, Catholicism, christian, gay marriage, God, pope benedict xvi, religious right
