Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Pope Francis and the Wolves in the Vatican



As you may know Pope Francis' encyclical on climate change has been leaked to the media before its scheduled release on Thursday. 

Pope Francis will this week call for changes in lifestyles and energy consumption to avert the “unprecedented destruction of the ecosystem” before the end of this century, according to a leaked draft of a papal encyclical. In a document released by an Italian magazine on Monday, the pontiff will warn that failure to act would have “grave consequences for all of us”.

And not only is it a clear attempt to steal his thunder.

Even more ominously, it shows that there are wolves in the Vatican who may be out to destroy him. 

The unexpected leak of Pope Francis’ much-anticipated environmental encyclical has meant the return of something that not long ago was fairly common around the Vatican but had become often dormant during the two-plus years of Francis’ mostly charmed papacy: intrigue. 

“Somebody inside the Vatican leaked the document with the obvious intention of embarrassing the pope,” said Robert Mickens, a longtime Vatican expert and editor of Global Pulse, an online Catholic magazine.


For daring to try to clean-up that notorious nest of corruption.

Marco Politi, a Vatican analyst and author, said tensions had been steadily rising in recent months, especially since Francis delivered a stern address in December, accusing members of the Roman Curia of careerism and hypocrisy.

And perversion.

He noted that the leaked draft also appeared on the same day the Vatican announced it would prosecute its former ambassador to the Dominican Republic on charges of sexually abusing boys and possessing child pornography.

But of course not only does Francis have enemies in the Vatican, in the United States many Republicans and right-wing Catholics loons are also lining up to take shots at him.



This is upsetting some American conservatives, particularly those beholden to large corporations whose profits might be impacted by legislation to limit carbon emissions. 

It’s even riling Catholics, with presidential candidate Rick Santorum, perhaps the most devout papist in American political life, recently telling Francis to stay out of climate change and “leave the science to the scientists.” That would be Pope Francis who has a masters degree in chemistry making him, well, a scientist.

And one can only imagine what our climate change denier in chief, and hitman for Big Oil thinks of Francis...



Especially after his recent papal humiliation. 

And since Francis has so many powerful enemies, and the list of murdered Popes is such a long one.

There are reasons to be concerned.

And all I can say is I have never cheered for a Pope before, I am after all an atheist.

But I am cheering for this one...



May his god, and especially his Swiss Guards.

Protect him from all those who would destroy him...

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5 comments:

  1. Pope Francis got an open letter from the Cornwall Alliance.
    Much more powerful than Rush Limbaugh.
    Here's what they believe.
    http://www.cornwallalliance.org/landmark-documents/the-biblical-perspective-of-environmental-stewardship-subduing-and-ruling-the-earth-to-the-glory-of-god-and-the-benefit-of-our-neighbors/
    Apparently it's OK to pollute the earth.
    God won't let anything bad happen!
    And Free Market Capitalism is His special creation.
    Harper's creed.



    According to

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    1. hinofan - Cornwall Alliance: WOW! I guess I would ask them that if G-d doesn't make mistakes, then why was The Flood necessary? [There are sooo many things wrong with their position, but I'll just leave it at that.]

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    2. hi hinofan...although I'm an atheist, I don't criticize religion too much. I recognize it fulfils a human need for some, and unless they stick their noses into my life, or try to kill me, I generally leave them alone. But this anti-environmental strain of religion is absolutely insane, it's a another death cult as far as I'm concerned. And it can't be fought strongly enough...

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  2. Yes, the ecocidal strain of theology is up there with the violent homophobic ones, the racist ones, and of course the misogynist ones (though alas I think that is inherent to the major monotheistic religions, and several other major faiths).

    Since I'm an atheist, I'm not praying for Pope Francis, or for the Black people murdered in a historic African-American church in Charleston, but if believers want to, that's fine with me.

    Another interesting aspect is that this Pope, formerly rather conservative (not the worst in terms of the murderous military dictatorship, but not the most courageous either) has become more radical with age, like the late (and murdered) Archbishop Oscar Romero of San Salvador.

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  3. I'll add that the title of this encyclical is "Laudato si' ", the first words of the verses of the Canticle of the Creatures, by the original Francesco, and one of the first written poems in vernacular Italian (as opposed to Latin) and a magnificent hommage to the Earth and her creatures.

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