Essay by Eric Worrall
The first US pope is just as green as his predecessor.
Pope prays for world to recognize urgency of climate crisis as he celebrates Mass’ using new rite
BY NICOLE WINFIELD Updated 11:47 PM AEST, July 9, 2025
ROME (AP) — Pope Leo XIV prayed Wednesday for the world to recognize the urgency of the climate crisis and “hear the cry of the poor,” as he celebrated the first papal Mass using a new set of prayers and readings inspired by Pope Francis’ environmental legacy.
The Mass, in the gardens of the Vatican’s new ecological educational center at the papal summer estate in Castel Gandolfo, indicated a strong line of ecological continuity with Francis, who made environmental protection a hallmark of his pontificate.
Wearing flowing green vestments, Leo presided at the liturgy in front of a statue of the Madonna and at the foot of a reflecting pool, immersed in the lush green gardens on an unusually cool summer day. He said the world needed to change its mindset about the planet and what is causing “the world to burn.”
“We must pray for the conversion of so many people, inside and out of the church, who still don’t recognize the urgency of caring for our common home,” he said. “We see so many natural disasters in the world, nearly every day and in so many countries, that are in part caused by the excesses of being human, with our lifestyle.”
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Read more: https://apnews.com/article/pope-leo-green-mass-climate-justice-4a65f5d0897016d654589439032433b3
How depressing. Over the years US Catholic priests have notably pushed back against the increasingly radical green agenda of the church leadership, but I guess there is always an exception.
Yet another political pontif
I was going to say, “go to hell” (like the last one.)
Every single one of them has been driven by Church or worldly politics for the last two millennia.Less than two centuries ago, Popes were trying to maintain the Papal States as an independent principality. It’s the oldest criminal organization in the world. Why would anyone imagine it would ever change?
he’s pontificating!
Hey Pope!
I’ll grant your standing to explain/teach/decide when it comes to spiritual matters concerning the Faithful in your church.
OTOH, you have NO standing when it comes to explaining/teaching/deciding when it comes to the climates of the earth – a subject that only God could possibly explain (MAYBE!).
Carry on.
Man has no effect on the climate so what sort of action is the Pope calling for?
For us serfs to live in mud huts while he lives high and mighty, of course.
Agreed.
and WT* is “climate action”??
It is a totally moronic term.
The very best way to help poor countries is to help them develop solid reliable energy supplies such as COAL, GAS, Hydro where applicable.
With the political unrest in many of these countries, Nuclear energy may not be a good option.
Driving your SUV with worn injectors. 😉
When the Vatican generates its own green energy inside its own boundaries, and doesn’t partake of the benefits of fossil fuels, maybe I will listen to them.
when a significant percentage of the tithing actually goes to helping people, then I will listen to them.
I fully agree. Back in the early ’60s I spent part of the summer traveling through Spain and Portugal. While in Seville I took a tour of the Cathedral, the largest Christian Gothic cathedral in the world and the world’s richest cathedral. If I remember correctly, they paraded the statue of the Virgin Mary through the town once a year while wearing the latest jewelry the town’s people had donated. After the parade, the jewelry was placed in a special 12 to 15 m^2 room full of all the jewelry she had worn previously, along with all the gold and silver vestments no long worn by the priests. They also had a 900 lb solid gold alter along with a spare gold and silver one stored in the basement. All the while, there were beggars around the front door of the cathedral. As I said, I fully agree.
Agreed on that one. I meant I might listen to them on climate/energy if they generate their own.
While the west reduced CO2 emissions by 3Gt (since 2000), China increased them by 10Gt (officially) and ~14Gt actually. That is not decreasing CO2 emissions, but rather increasing them.
ES:
China sells the West all the trappings for renewable energy [wind, solar, batteries & much of the needed electronics] knowing you can not run a 21st Century economy on renewables [Just ask Dr. James Hansen] all the while building more coal plants. Doomberg just reported China consumes 56% of the global use of coal. [Source: Statistical Review of World Energy]
In doing so, China makes 100’s of billions of dollars/year AND weakens its greatest competitor & geopolitical rival: a Win-Win situation for them. The CCP likely calls the climate alarmists
“useful idiots”.
Here in the US, since Jan 21 2025 we have “un-wokened” [I just made that up] on climate — maybe the rest of the West will too before it is too late.
Amen to this:
This has been a long & winding* road.
Some became ‘unwoke’ back in A.D. 2008 (!)
Twas the 2nd of October, in the Great VP Debate:
And so the Governor of Alaska became reviled, despised, mocked … by all the Right People. Causing the scales to fall from their eyes …. [we] saw clearly what [our] Betters thought of [us] all.
*Cf. wende(n), auf deutsch
And China is downplaying its actual emissions. This here is one of my favourites, from Liu et al. 2015 Fig.3. It shows how Chinese coal contains far less carbon “than previously thought”.
40% less!!! This is was published in Nature, thoroughly “peer reviewed”. And maybe it is just me, but to my knowledge 0.499/0.713 = 0.7, or 30% less, not 40. LOL.
And yet, despite the whole of the claim is evidently complete nonsense, Chinese CO2 emissions are indeed based on the claim their coal would simply emit 40% less…
0.713 – 0.491 = 0.214
0.214 / 0.713 = .3001
Agree.
Peer review doesn’t know math.
But doesn’t the PRC import lots of coal from Oz? So Australian coal must also have 40% less carbon. Who knew?
Well, we did notice the religious beliefs of the climate alarmists so they are in good company. It is based on original sin and both dowsed in Guilt. And ruled by Dogma.
“We must pray for the conversion of so many people, inside and out of the church, who still don’t recognize the urgency of caring for our common home,” he said.
well maybe he is longing for the plague to return, to get rid of modern medicine and people. The return of eugenics.
Using those words one fully expects the Pontiff to support birth control, yet..
Thanks ballynally,
Great point you make about it all going back to the religious doctrine of original sin.
It’s been on my mind for some time. I encourage readers, who may not be familiar with it, to head off and do some historical/theological research. To my mind it seems to be a belief deeply embedded in the fear of global warming.
I’m sure that, for most global warming belief adherents of today, the belief in the concept of original sin is not a specifically religious belief. But it is there all the same. It is ‘clothed’ with a semblance of scientific credibility.
Interesting parralels between the two situations.
Which doctrine on original sin do you follow, the doctrine of the Catholic Church, the doctrine of Luther and Calvin or some other?
Okay, I’ll take that question on notice. I’m open to correction but, as I understand it, the concept all goes back to Adam in the Garden of Eden.
As I understand the ‘doctrine’ it holds that we are all – the whole human population that is – is tainted by fhe sin of Adam. This is the point of comparrison with global warming activism – that, fundamentally, humans are forever and persistenrly bad. It’s all about guilt.
Humanity was forgiven and cleansed of the Original Sin 2000 years ago, almost to the year, if one believes in that faith.
Well, more like each individual was thrown a life preserver.
It’s still up to the individual to accept it (Him) or not.
Freedom of will has always been a big deal to God.
Not all of the teachings agree with you.
God is all powerful (omnipotent), all knowing (omniscient), and everything happens according to God’s will, right down to the leaf falling off a tree.
Funny that Jesus’s death and resurrection forgave and cleansed humanity of that original sin.
So did it or did it not?
Of course one has to buy into the religion of original sin to answer.
I said when he was elected that this was going to be a catastrophe.
Sometimes, I hate it when I’m right …
w.
100% Willis. I had the same apprehension.
“Pope Leo XIV prayed Wednesday for the world to recognize the urgency of the climate crisis and “hear the cry of the poor,”
Demonizing fossil fuels leads to increased prices and prohibitions on development both of which significantly harm the poorest people on earth.
The hypocrisy from this the church and this man are astounding!
It’s not hypocrisy, it’s ignorance and stupidity.
Tear down those (Vatican) walls!
It’s not ignorance or stupidity or hypocrisy.
It is sacrilege. It is abomination. Relative to the Catholic and Christian religions.
Francis carefully remade the College of Cardinals so that a Leo would be the inevitable result.
Leo should stay in his lane. He has plenty to do there. After all, the Vatican is broke, many of the archdioceses in the US are also broke from priest abuse settlements, and regular church attendance is way down in Europe.
Another one who confuses Maria with Gaia. He should read up on mythology.
I submit he should read up on the Bible.
Well, it could be a very clever move to distract the Vatican’s critics who claim that the catholic church has no idea about how ordinary people live.
As in – make everybody to blame for natural disasters
“caused by the excesses of being human, with our lifestyles”
The classic “look over there!” trick?
He should first look to the excesses of his Church.
He should simply PRAY and not call for others to spend $$$
And by the way if he wants climate action he should start at home and give up all FF use.
If he were true to his faith, that is exactly what he should do.
I regard this as more “Liberation Theology”, trying to reconcile Marx and Jesus.
Maybe Pope Leo should remember the Rainbow .. God’s promise not to destroy the world, or has the Pope forgotten his faith and the Bible?
Maybe Pope Leo can make AGW a matter of faith and morals. He can then declare human-caused warming an infallible truth. Driving an ICE vehicle becomes a mortal sin and a cause for excommunication.
Pope Leo ought to put his principles where his mouth is. Otherwise his climate angst is just a hypocritical pose. A virtue signal.
Since when has a mortal sin been a cause for excommunication?
Notice the “and.” It’s not a ‘for.’
Excommunication to follow violating an infallible doctrine.
Maybe Leo should consider the fate of much of the French clergy during the French Revolution. It never fails to amaze me how useful idiots always seem to align with the Left in their misplaced hopes that they will either be spared, or at least left temporarily unscathed by the wrath of the Left.
Follow the a$$ets:
While sailing in Mexico about 30 years ago the government wanted to increase the government provided school system from a maximum of 6 years up to 8 or 10 years. The biggest opponent to that was the Catholic Church. The church schools provided those follow-on grades and apparently didn’t want the competition.
Oh God! Not another one. Must be kool-aide in that Holy Water?
Carbonated Holy Water?
/sarc
Never put much stock in Popes before, put even less stock in them now. He needs to wise up.
“Wearing flowing green vestments, Leo …”
Hilarious. A truly green Pope.
Oppress the poor why don’t you.
How does the religion of peace weigh in on this? That’s the one with the long knives.
Follow the money and gifts.
Exodus 20:3
Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
Perhaps the Pope needs to reread his bible? He’s worshipping the climate gods. Religion is faith without evidence, which describes the climate change activists very well. They believe. Ask them for evidence and they will mumble something about consensus.
On the other hand, it doesn’t say thou shalt have no other gods. It says no other gods “before me”. So perhaps there’s some wiggle room in there for some extra gods the Pope can worship.
On the other hand, I question his faith. If God wants him dead, he’s dead. If God wants him to live, he will live. So the Popemobile seems like an admission of weak faith, a belief in bullet proof glass before the will of God.
I shall now await the incoming hate mail.
Organic green dye can be made from various plants, such as artichokes, black-eyed Susans, chamomile, and maybe pistachios. I’m not sure about the last. Makes green ice cream.
Can P. Leo confirm the robe color wasn’t synthetic? 🤢
So is the Pope going to cut back on his lavish lifestyle which is more comfortable than, oh I don’t know, probably 99.9999% of humanity?
Has he given up on being Catholic, he now thinks the Green religion is the revealed Word of God, and salvation comes from Mother Earth or the Pachamama or Gaia or somesuch?
The Church is great at religion but terrible at politics and science. It has always been thus, even before Galileo.
Pope Leo called for “environmental justice” on his X account and got lambasted. Other eco-babble used by both Leo and Francis includes the “integrity of creation”, another meaningless buzz phrase. Here it is in the Catechism (#2415).
“Man’s dominion over inanimate and other living beings granted by the Creator is not absolute; it is limited by concern for the quality of life of his neighbor, including generations to come; it requires a religious respect for the integrity of creation.”
I dispute that. God’s word is absolute. Dominion is a fact, not a choice. Creation includes the entire Universe and is something humans cannot disintegrate.
The use of empty phrases that smack of blasphemy and imply that human beings are a blight to Creation is counter to the fundamental teachings and sacrifice of Jesus Christ. It’s a monumental tragedy that the Magisterium has lost touch with the Faith. I pray they find the Path again soon.
“God’s word is absolute.”
Only to those that believe in such things.
The church’s word is no more meaningful than any other person’s.
Sadly true, but now worth less.
The Church should be a beacon of how to live together in harmony, improve everyone’s lives, and stop killing each other.
This pontification is more likely to incite wars over resources than promote peace.
God’s word and the Church’s word are two different things. Human beings, including the Pope, the Curia, Jesuits, bishops, and the authors of the Catechism are fallible. The Creator, the Word, and the Spirit are not. There is only one Truth. We struggle to find it; God is it.
“He said the world needed to change its mindset about the planet and what is causing “the world to burn.” ”
The man is either an ill-informed fool, or (more lightly) another overprivileged, hypocritical, lying grifter like Al Gore, keeping the coffers full.
Neither position should allow him to stay in post.!!
The poop has as much relevance as Gutty of the UN.
Both are totally ignorant virtue-seeking twits with zero clue what they are actually talking about.
Green – around the gills.