Pope Francis is to deliver an encyclical this summer on how climate change affects the poor.
WASHINGTON — Since his first homily in 2013, Pope Francis
has preached about the need to protect the earth and all of creation as
part of a broad message on the environment. It has caused little
controversy so far.
But
now, as Francis prepares to deliver what is likely to be a highly
influential encyclical this summer on environmental degradation and the
effects of human-caused climate change
on the poor, he is alarming some conservatives in the United States who
are loath to see the Catholic Church reposition itself as a mighty
voice in a cause they do not believe in.
As part of the effort for the encyclical, top Vatican
officials will hold a summit meeting Tuesday to build momentum for a
campaign by Francis to urge world leaders to enact a sweeping United
Nations climate change
accord in Paris in December. The accord would for the first time commit
every nation to enact tough new laws to cut the emissions that cause
global warming.
The Vatican
summit meeting will focus on the links between poverty, economic
development and climate change, with speeches and panel discussions by
climate scientists and religious leaders, and economists like Jeffrey
Sachs of Columbia. The United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon,
who is leading efforts to forge the Paris accord, will deliver the
opening address.
Vatican
officials, who have spent more than a year helping Francis prepare his
message, have convened several meetings already on the topic. Last
month, they met with the administrator of the Environmental Protection
Agency, Gina McCarthy.
In
the United States, the encyclical will be accompanied by a 12-week
campaign, now being prepared with the participation of some Catholic
bishops, to raise the issue of climate change and environmental
stewardship in sermons, homilies, news media interviews and letters to
newspaper editors, said Dan Misleh, executive director of the Catholic
Climate Covenant in Washington.
But
the effort is already angering a number of American conservatives,
among them members of the Heartland Institute, a libertarian group
partly funded by the Charles G. Koch Foundation, run by the billionaire
industrialist Koch brothers, who oppose climate policy.
“The
Holy Father is being misled by ‘experts’ at the United Nations who have
proven unworthy of his trust,” Joseph Bast, the president of the Heartland Institute, said in a statement. “Though Pope Francis’
heart is surely in the right place, he would do his flock and the world
a disservice by putting his moral authority behind the United Nations’
unscientific agenda on the climate.”
The institute plans to hold a news conference and panel event in Rome on Tuesday in protest of the Vatican summit meeting.
But
climate policy advocates see a scheduled address by the pope to
Congress in September as a potent moment — about 30 percent of members
of Congress are Catholics, more than belong to any other religion,
according to a study published this year by the Pew Research Center.
Speaker
John A. Boehner, Republican of Ohio, invited the pope to speak to
Congress, but some Catholics say that Mr. Boehner should prepare for
some uncomfortable moments. Mr. Boehner, who is Catholic, has often
criticized the Obama administration for what he calls its “job killing”
environmental agenda.
“I
think Boehner was out of his mind to invite the pope to speak to
Congress,” said the Rev. Thomas Reese, an analyst at the National
Catholic Reporter. “Can you imagine what the Republicans will do when he
says, ‘You’ve got to do something about global warming’? ”
In
addition, a number of Catholics — including Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio,
Bobby Jindal, Chris Christie and Rick Santorum — are gearing up to
compete for the Republican presidential nomination, and most of them
question the science of human-caused climate change.
Several
conservative Catholic intellectuals who expect the pope’s message to
bolster the vast majority of scientists who hold that climate change is
induced by human activity, including Robert P. George, a Princeton law
professor, have published articles reminding Catholics that papal
pronouncements on science are not necessarily sound or binding.
Maureen Mullarkey, a painter and writer, said in the conservative journal First Things that
“Francis sullies his office by using demagogic formulations to bully
the populace into reflexive climate action with no more substantive
guide than theologized propaganda.”
Timothy
E. Wirth, vice chairman of the United Nations Foundation, said: “We’ve
never seen a pope do anything like this. No single individual has as
much global sway as he does. What he is doing will resonate in the
government of any country that has a leading Catholic constituency.”
Francis,
however, is not the first pope to push an environmental message. His
predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, called the “green pope” by some, wrote
about the environment and the impact of climate change in documents that
have been collected in a book, “The Environment.” But Catholic and
climate policy experts acknowledge that those works had little
substantive impact on global warming policy.
Francis’
policy moves on climate change, particularly his use of the encyclical,
go far beyond what has come before. Catholics point to other papal
encyclicals that have had public policy impacts: Pope Leo XIII’s 1891
encyclical on labor and workers’ rights is believed to have spurred the
workers’ rights movement and led to the creation of labor unions.
“I
think this moves the needle,” said Charles J. Reid Jr., a professor at
the University of St. Thomas School of Law. “Benedict was an ivory-tower
academic. He wrote books and hoped they would persuade by reason. But
Pope Francis knows how to sell his ideas. He is engaged in the
marketplace.”
Francis,
who chose the name of St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of
animals and the environment, has had far more influence on the church
and public. Born in Argentina, Francis draws cheering crowds from around
the world and millions of followers to his social media accounts. He
has been embraced for his humility, antipoverty agenda, progressive
statements on social issues and efforts to reform the Vatican
bureaucracy.
This
month he said in a Twitter post: “We need to care for the earth so that
it may continue, as God willed, to be a source of life for the entire
human family.”
The
pope’s influence on the Paris climate accord may be strongest in Latin
America. In past years, Latin American countries have resisted efforts
to enact climate policy, arguing that developing economies should not
have to cut emissions while developed economies continue to pollute.
But
over the past year, some Latin American governments have signaled a
willingness to step forward on climate policy, and this year Mexico
became one of the first nations to submit a plan ahead of the Paris
talks.
“This
pope is more than just a church leader — he is a political leader,
particularly in Latin America,” said Romina Picolotti, president of the Center for Human Rights and Environment in Argentina. “Youth in Latin America are really following him closel
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