Tuesday, December 15, 2009

The Pope goes Green?

Glad I'm a Protestant:
Industrialized nations must recognize their responsibility for the environmental crisis, shed their consumerism and embrace more sober lifestyles, Pope Benedict said on Tuesday. . . .
"This means that technologically advanced societies must be prepared to encourage more sober lifestyles, while reducing their energy consumption and improving its efficiency." . . .
"More sober lifestyles"? Next thing you know, he'll be talking Jimmy Carter "malaise" stuff. (Via AmSpecBlog.)

13 comments:

  1. What is up with the Pope? We Catholics do not take to SOBER anything.

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  2. Don't rely on the Guardian for papal coverage. They glossed over this huge caveat.

    "On the other hand, a correct understanding of the relationship between man and the environment will not end by absolutizing nature or by considering it more important than the human person. If the Church’s magisterium expresses grave misgivings about notions of the environment inspired by ecocentrism and biocentrism, it is because such notions eliminate the difference of identity and worth between the human person and other living things. In the name of a supposedly egalitarian vision of the 'dignity' of all living creatures, such notions end up abolishing the distinctiveness and superior role of human beings. They also open the way to a new pantheism tinged with neo-paganism, which would see the source of man’s salvation in nature alone, understood in purely naturalistic terms."

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  3. You can find the whole speech, with commentary, here.

    http://wdtprs.com/blog/2009/12/benedict-xvis-message-for-2010-world-day-of-peace/

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  4. If the Pope so much as observes that the sky is blue, the MSM will find a way to trim it to a sound bite and cram it into their own narrative. "I control the weather, Pope asserts" or some such stuff.

    For anything papal you really need to read the Pope's own words.

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  5. "Glad I'm a Protestant."

    So's the Archbishop of Canterbury.

    Joe Marier up there puts things in the proper perspective. In any event, Catholics are not bound to accept what are merely pastoral opinions (as opposed to pronouncements on dogma).

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  6. If you read all of Lawler's piece at AS you might agree with his conclusions, as I do: "That actually sounds closer to an appeal to personal responsibility than to governments and top-down solutions."

    Drudge used the "pope goes green" headline, too, and it was misleading.

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  7. Paco said...
    Joe Marier up there puts things in the proper perspective. In any event, Catholics are not bound to accept what are merely pastoral opinions (as opposed to pronouncements on dogma).

    I blame the Pope's guest-bloggers.

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  8. But what a Catholic you would be!!!!!

    Don't judge those of us who espouse the Roman Catholic faith so quickly, Fearless Leader, or His Holiness, who is pointing out the obvious in a Christian non political way. Sometimes it takes a decent man like His Holiness, to remind us of our Christian duties and responsibilities.

    Unfortunately, conservatives realize what skanks there are in the nationa with their hands out, hell bent on destroying this country from within and without. Just look at the current office holder at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

    Mr. Marier is correct and I for one am surprised that you did not realize it first!!!

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  9. A post tagged Catholic and I didn't comment? What's up with that?

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  10. As a faithful Catholic, I recommend the Pope take the position that the Church took with Galileo. You see, Galileo claimed more than Catholic-bashers give him "credit" for. He also claimed to have "proven" the immobility of the sun. Anyway, the Church criticized Galileo simply because he claimed to have "proven" something he had not yet proven. He claimed, in other words, that the science on the matter was "settled". Sound familiar? The Catholic Church can't win, it seems. It will go down in history as the Church that "persecuted Galileo". Take a position like this and get slammed from the other side of the debate. My word! But, when it all boils down, what we have the Pope saying here is not DOGMA. It's a pastoral statement and can, therefore, be in error. Maybe he's right, maybe he's wrong. Either way, it doesn't prove anything. Now, if the Pope came out and pronounced as dogma that the bread and wine remain bread and wine, I'd be looking around for some answers. This is nothing.

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  11. Joe shoots...and scores! Stacy, you can't rely on the MSM to report the truth about any socially conservative church - they bend and twist everything to fit their agenda. Next time you'll be on the money!

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  12. All you need to know is that, once, the MSM reported the Holy Father wore green vestments to show solidarity with the environmental movement.

    Except that he didn't.

    Because green is the standard liturgical color for the season of Ordinary Time, and Catholic priests and bishops EVERYWHERE spend a great deal of the year wearing green vestments.

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  13. That statement is pretty mild, Stacy. Which part could possibly upset you? I mean, to me it sounds pretty . . . conservative: cut waste, work towards efficiency, be frugal, eschew financial lunacy like growing an economy on credit.

    Also, the Pope has always been "green," insomuch as environmental stewardship and opposition to the more extravagant elements of capitalism are longtime Catholic doctrine.

    PHIL P.

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