A few mischievous thoughts.

A few mischievous thoughts.

If Pope Francis is truly interested in the environment, he should, without delay, ditch the cars he is driven around in and use the sedia gestatoria.  It’s for the planet!

Furthermore, to save the planet by reducing fossil fuel use (and planet killing Air Conditioning), Francis should immediately cancel World Youth Day.

One of my correspondents opined that “the antidote to Laudato si is Donald Trump for President“.  That oughta freak out some Fishwrapers.*

And, again, if everyone is going to be required by the elite liberal set to accept the Pope’s musings on the environment and markets as nearly infallible teaching, then perhaps we should give them all copies of … say… Mortalium animos… Humanae vitae… Ordinatio sacerdotalis… Summorum Pontificum… and hold them to their own standards.

Speaking of Air Conditioning, one of my priest correspondents sent …

Since the Pope has taken a dim view on air conditioning, the non-carbon producing  flabella are the ecological sound solution for all your cooling needs.

Come to think of it, both the flabella and the return of the sedia gestatoria help to alleviate  youth unemployment which His Holiness says is one of “the most urgent” problems facing the Church, and one of the “most serious of the evils that afflict the world these days.” HERE

*Some humorless lib will now claim that I endorsed Donald Trump.  Just watch.

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64 Comments

  1. Venerator Sti Lot says:

    The sedia gestatoria and flabella would be good exercise, too! Perhaps a lecticula would be even better exercise – I was once one of four bearers in a Shakespeare production and it was … challenging (and a responsibility: one has to have confidence in one’s lecticarii).

  2. Supertradmum says:

    As an increasingly older person, coming from an earlier world where there was no air conditioning in shops, houses, schools, banks, churches, I can say for sure that we do not need it in order to live.

    I have always wondered at parishes which are stretched for money insisting on keeping the church at a frigid 68 F in the summer.

    Just a thought….

  3. Persistant says:

    Why cancel the WYD? Besides saving the planet, of course. I think that with a few adjustments (such as banning dance for bishops and similar), it’s good to go.

    And I’d add, perhaps the pope should spare some energy during the winter by wearing the winter mozzetta and a camauro!

  4. KAS says:

    I grew up north, without air conditioning, and yes, it was certainly fine. Not needed at all in the area where I grew up, and yet people use it– which makes no sense at all when you can have all the nice sounds of birds singing and the smell of flowers with the open windows.

    Of course, in some places, if you do not use the AC, your home WILL be broken into during the night by people who are not safe, possibly armed and very likely high on hard drugs. So how does not using the AC make anything better for the person?

    And at 97 degrees F and 89% humidity AT DAWN–it gets hotter–, lack of air conditioning? Ah, no. I will gladly move north and forgo AC, but not when swimming my day as in a sauna.

    I do agree with the idea of deliberately weaning myself from materialism, been doing that for the past decade. Selling off things I really do not need, giving away things that have usefulness in them but are not needed, refusing to buy things I do not actually need, and putting the income I did not spend to better use. Like sourcing my coffee from Carmelite monks, and choosing some really good ministries (one does nothing but feed people after natural disasters, another helps priests in need (I think I may have heard of them from this blog) and otherwise, picking out where that money SHOULD go (Gabriel project comes to mind as one I hope to donate to sometime soon).

    My husband stripped down the food budget and we eat so much healthier–on less. So those aspects of the encyclical, about the inner changes Catholics are called to make resonate with me.

    Sadly, his economic understanding confuses me. Is he reversing the Church’s stance that communism is incompatible with church teaching?

  5. Cafea Fruor says:

    Well, as someone who’s always fighting off a sinus infection and who’s had arthritis for years despite her relatively young age, I can say I would be miserable in summer (I.e., more than I already am) without A/C in any climate with a smidgen of humidity. I would be in a lot of pain for.months on end. And I grew up without A/C, so it’s not just a matter of what you grew up with. Now, on the other hand, I’m one who can live without much heat at all. In the winter, my heat is only on at 62 because I live in an apartment that has radiators, and I have to keep the heat there to keep the pipes from freezing. If I had my druthers, it would be cooler than that. So, I think it’s a fair trade off.

  6. Imrahil says:

    Is he reversing the Church’s stance that communism is incompatible with church teaching?

    There is not hitherto any indication of that.

    I wouldn’t count on it, though, that anything that runs as “communism” or “socialism” in U.S. American political debate actually is communism or socialism.

  7. Imrahil says:

    Speaking of air condition,

    in Italy (which is not the freeziest country in the world) they use thick walls and little windows shut with wood. They open them in the early morning to get fresh air and close them in the mid-morning to keep the Sun out. Seems to work quite fine.

  8. Sonshine135 says:

    It has been in the high 90’s to 100 degrees with dew points in the 70’s here in the Southeastern US of A for the past week. Although we are no stranger to hot weather, this has been a quite oppressive stretch of weather- even for us. I suggest the Holy Father come and stay here for the duration of the heatwave. Maybe he can also convince the elderly and infirm to shut their AC units off for the good of the planet.

  9. @Sonshine135

    I live in the great state of Texas. I agree with you! Every summer quite a few elderly are found dead due to the heat because they had no air-conditioning. People here donate window units to those who have none.

  10. Mike says:

    in Italy (which is not the freeziest country in the world) they use thick walls and little windows shut with wood. . . .

    I thought of that as I attended Vespers and Benediction this Sunday at a church in our nation’s capital built of modern materials and not ideally equipped to cope — as they had to through midweek — with the failure of one of their air conditioning compressors.

    Years ago I lived in an apartment out a ways in Maryland, in a historic structure built of thick masonry and protected by trees. While the temperature and humidity weren’t much lower than what they were in town (and once in a while were higher), I never had to run A/C in the summer. Would that we could learn how to build that way again.

  11. anilwang says:

    Of course, if he wants to people to avoid materialism, he needs to get rid of self-indulgence.

    So reinstitute the common Friday fast and exhort bishops and priest to submit to Humanae Vitae which teaches the good in fasting in marriage and chastity before marriage. Institute a feast in honor of Casti Connubii and Humanae Vitae to celebrate chastity both within marriage and outside of marriage.

  12. lh says:

    I live in the south, during heat waves people without air conditioning have died from the heat. He does not understand how deadly heat can be.

  13. Bruce says:

    A Priest I know said that what is needed today is an ecology of the heart. He also said in reference to the Italian churches that were damaged in the earthquakes a few years ago, that people are more concerned about the loss of the churches than they are about the loss of the spirit of the people who built those churches.

  14. shoofoolatte says:

    Solar energy could take care of all of our A/C needs.

  15. dans0622 says:

    Never heard of the term “flabella” before. Since the word was used in the context of the no-A/C discussion, I thought we were headed toward a cringe-inducing connection to the “flabmeisters” Bishop Tobin mentioned….

  16. Supertradmum says:

    This encyclical quotes Benedict all over the place…
    Also, it is very complex. Sound bites are ruining the real meaning of this work.

  17. anilwang says:

    For fun I ran the encyclical through word cloud along with two of Pope John Paul’s more secular encyclicals through word cloud. For those that don’t know, word cloud attempts to visually display how frequently words are use in a document. The larger the word, the more often it’s used. The results are interesting.

    https://www.jasondavies.com/wordcloud/#http%3A%2F%2Fw2.vatican.va%2Fcontent%2Ffrancesco%2Fen%2Fencyclicals%2Fdocuments%2Fpapa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html

    Fides et Ratio
    https://www.jasondavies.com/wordcloud/#http%3A%2F%2Fw2.vatican.va%2Fcontent%2Fjohn-paul-ii%2Fen%2Fencyclicals%2Fdocuments%2Fhf_jp-ii_enc_14091998_fides-et-ratio.html

    Evangelium Vitae
    https://www.jasondavies.com/wordcloud/#http%3A%2F%2Fw2.vatican.va%2Fcontent%2Fjohn-paul-ii%2Fen%2Fencyclicals%2Fdocuments%2Fhf_jp-ii_enc_25031995_evangelium-vitae.html

  18. pj_houston says:

    Are those ostrich feathers on the flabella? Nope, sorry can’t have that, think of the poor featherless ostriches. Humans just need to suck it up and sweat, yes some will die from the heat but we’ll save the planet from air conditioners!

  19. dbonneville says:

    I haven’t read the encyclical but I know that what happens on earth follows the reality firstly established in the heavenlies. That is why Jesus prayed “on earth as it is in heaven”. My point is this: the disordered state of the world reflects the disordered state of the overall spirit of men. Therefore if you fix souls, you fix the world. To fix souls, you need to fix the Liturgy. This dovetails nicely with Bs. Tobin’s rant on how people look at Mass. It reflects an interior reality brought about by the perceived meaning of Mass.

    In other words, “save the liturgy, save the world”.

    The greatest pollutants on earth right now are disordered Novus Ordo masses, which are exterior realities of interior paradigms devoid of belief in the Real Presence.

  20. capchoirgirl says:

    Chalk me up as one on the A/C side–even here in Ohio, we have heat waves where people die, and regularly have A/C “drives”, where people donate them to elderly members of the community. It’s not just elderly people; people who have pulmonary problems can have trouble breathing when it gets too hot.
    Cafea, I’m with you–I do quite fine with it being cold, except when it gets super cold (below 10, as it can also do, in Ohio). I’ll keep my heating off for months in the fall.

  21. FL_Catholic says:

    But Father! But Father! Having your throne carried on the shoulders of the working man is so Triumpalist and Eliteist! Its almost like you’re implying that the Papal Office has some special dignity which raises it above the Priesthood of the Faithful! You must hate Vatican II!

  22. cajuncath says:

    Generally, very interesting and good ‘mischievous’ comments, Fr. Z.

    Although you should bear in mind that Mortalium Animos was as unacceptable to the last two popes as it is to the current one.

  23. FL_Catholic says:

    *Triumphalist, Elitist * Can’t type today!

  24. cajuncath says:

    “Between the Pope and air conditioning, I’d choose air conditioning.”

    Woody Allen character in Deconstructing Harry

  25. mikeinmo says:

    Does this mean that the Synod of Bishops For the Family this fall will be cancelled? After all, imagine all of the fossil fuels needed to get the Bishops to Rome, and back home. Also, the Bishops will consume a lot of food and air conditioning while travelling and while in Rome. Imagine the carbon footprint! On the other hand, doesn’t consumption of God given resources create jobs, and help us provide for “the poor”? What a dilemma. Or something…………….

    MDW suggests a worldwide teleconference, in order to save the planet. They will just have to work around the fact that the earth consists of 24 time zones. Or something……………

  26. Imrahil says:

    By the way…

    “Save the liturgy, save the world” is actually (sort of) said in the encyclical (no. 233-237).

    Dear pj_houston, I don’t think dead ostriches would mind much if we take their feathers. But they’re dead, if we, say, have eaten their meat before, which Pope Francis explicitly allows (no. 22 – fashionable environmentalists are going to like that…)

    Half-joke: the principal statement of Pope Francis, or one of them, seems to be that the ostrich, however much we may nourish ourselves with his meat or refresh ourselves with his feathers, is not to be taken as a model for policy.

  27. cwillia1 says:

    The purpose of fasting is to save our souls and not to save the planet. So much of what is done in the name of the environment is superstition and idolatry. People do it to feel good about themselves.

  28. If your readership is interested in getting a .mobi or .epub version of Laudato Si’ for their Kindles or other e-readers: http://sperolaus.com/2015/06/laudato-si-epub-download/

  29. pmullane says:

    I remember the good old days when the Church formed men’s hearts so they could decide whether they needed air conditioning or not from themselves. Glad we don’t have to do any of that thinking for ourselves now, because if we did we might note that the Pope has put ‘not quite’ truths and junk science in his new encyclical, and then people would question what else was in encyclicals and other forms of Church teaching that was not quite true. And that would cause mens faith to fail.

  30. Supertradmum says:

    mikeinmo,
    some Church councils or parts of councils votes and input were conducted by post in older times…one can look this up.

  31. Pigeon says:

    I used to live in an apartment in central Texas that was built before AC was commonplace. While there were 2 window units (living room and bed room), even on the hottest days I could open up all the windows, and the breeze was so good, I didn’t need the AC. I think the apartment was designed that way. Nowadays, they are designed with AC in mind, without the need for natural utility.

    I also lived in an apartment in Boston with no AC. I survived (the summers, at least!)

  32. Imrahil says:

    Dear cwillia1,

    People do it to feel good about themselves.

    Which, as we are not ultrasupernaturalists, is plainly their right and far from anything like superstition or idolatry.

    It is allowed to do good and feel good about it (and even to receive, on that account, honors by others; the Angelic Doctor devotes an entire chapter to the virtue of “magnanimity” which deals with that). Whether the thing actually is good is, of course, a different question.

    Dear pmullane,

    as far as I see, the Pope only did judgments of the kind of “it is bad that so many people use airconditioning”, but not “it is a sin, or is a sin unless an exceptional circumstance arise, for an individual to use airconditioning” (I admit the tone of the document would suggest the latter; but he hasn’t said it).

  33. Aquinas Gal says:

    AC can save the lives of people who live in very hot places.
    I was struck by what a negative view the pope has of the modern world and the progress of the past centuries. True, it’s come with side effects of pollution, etc. But he barely speaks of all the benefits in terms of medical advances and the lives saved, the decrease in infant mortality, the lifting of people out of poverty, etc.
    I think it was Pope Paul who said, “Development is the new name of peace.” And Francis speaks against development, for the sake of the environment. I have been ambivalent about Francis up to now, but now it is so clear that he is a leftist thinker with bad ideas on the economy and the environment. I’ll endure his papacy as best I can while praying for a successor with clearer ideas. I think God has allowed his papacy as a test of faith for us.

  34. capchoirgirl says:

    Aquinas gal–yup. Noticed that too.

  35. SaintJude6 says:

    Air conditioning saves lives of the very old and the very young. Where I live in Texas, if you have a child under one year, your a/c going out is considered an emergency, and you get bumped to the head of the line for a service tech.
    Our high today will be an unseasonably cool 93 and humidity is 64%. Thank the good Lord for air conditioning.

  36. Mike says:

    “[N]o man can hope for eternal reward unless he follow in the blood-stained footprints of his Savior.”

    Thus Section 21 of Rerum Novarum, no anodyne to “the rich,” on man’s final end. Haven’t found anything similarly directed in Laudato Si; perhaps I’m not looking hard enough?

  37. Imrahil says:

    As a matter of fact,

    back in the days it was the leftists who said things the likes of “Socialism is soviet power plus electrification of the whole country” (Lenin), and so on. When Pope Paul VI issued Populorum progressio, he was quite rightly considered to have shifted the Papacy leftward (I am not saying he was wrong, but there cannot be doubt about the direction).

    In the traditional Catholic camp, technology-suspicion, a certain longing for the good old times, etc., has always had its adherents.

    As a matter of fact, the alignation of the Green movement with the Leftist movement is a historical accident. Back in the 1970s there were one important drive behind the Green movement was that the Conservative parties had become too progressist in terms of economy (in the words of F. J. Strauß: “to be conservative is to march on the top of progress”), leaving no place for expression to those that did not want to be progressist, longed for the old times, etc.

    I do not think it can be doubted that ecological farming is, or if not is then at least takes drive from seeming to be, “farming like they used to do it”. That the Green movement became leftist was that the general spirit of the age (60/70s) was leftist. Even so, there were a lot of Green parties that were decidedly rightist and even sometimes described as right-extremist (such as the ÖDP or ecological-democratic party of Germany). For those who read German, the Wikipedia-article “Herbert Gruhl” about one co-founder of the Greens (but who has just about nothing to do with modern Greens) is telling enough.

    Or an decidedly leftist Bavarian (hence coming from a general Catholic background) folk-band, the “Biermösl Blosn” or Biermoos Gang, would sing songs like:

    “What do we need in a farmer village, what do we need in a vill’ge?
    A Church, big and fair,
    one or two chaplains there,
    who are on people not too hard
    and do what they preach themselves, too, [rhymes in the or.]
    that’s what we need in a farmer village, that’s what we need in a vill’ge. [etc.]

    What’s there, still, in the farmer’s village, what’s there still in the vill’ge?
    No cobbler and no baker,
    the little farmers are croaking [rhymes in the or.],
    and people go to work to town,
    at night come back, put TV on,
    that’s what life’s now in the farmervillage, that’s what it is in the vill’ge.”

    So…

    note that in the following, “tradition” does not mean “deposit of faith”, “binding” or even “right”.

    In that sense: The tradition within Catholicism certainly was to suspect technology, modern life and big cities.

    A prime example, in authors, would be Karl Heinrich Waggerl (who I’m afraid has no English wikipedia page, but is just about the author Germans and Austrians turn to when we want idyllic Christmas stories; no Catholic himself, I’ve heard, but certainly a describer of Catholic atmospheres). I hear that attributed to Bernanos, also; it can certainly be found in Tolkien (think of Saruman and of the Scourging of the Shire!) and, with heavy reservations*, in Chesterton.

    [*Chesterton will also speak of the “beauty of the telegraph”, two people complaining about lamp-posts who lose themselves in a forest and find back by looking for the next lamp-post, or the poetry of a London Underground timetable – but the point here is, also, that this poetry must be seen as poetic and while it is, it is not usually seen so.]

    It was Pope Paul VI who deviated from here, and it is – strange though it may sound – Pope Francis who seems to return to it.

    Sorry for the length.

  38. Benedict Joseph says:

    Doing Morning Prayer today the lament of the Jews held captive in all that heat in Babylon came to mind, sitting by the polluted waters with their harps hanging on the leafless limbs above, forced to sing a song of Zion for their abusive male captors. How many of us feel this agony during the current captivity we are enduring, not only on the civil level, but the ecclesiastical? Yes, yesterday’s encyclical has good points to make – one would imagine 180 pages would provide that opportunity. A broken clock is right twice a day. But yet again we are privileged to receive another left-wing tome of false science sandwiched between pious platitudes which, if employed by the “trads” (an vile term often found amongst the “Crux” commenters – and indeed they are a crux) would be found to be “pious nonsense” (a term favored by a priest I had in high school in the council’s wake, now married and a retired social worker).
    It is, to be sure, a 180 page glass hammer.
    Think of all the felled trees required to disperse its contents in multiple languages across the planet. All that oily ink. The agony of it all…
    How much longer, O Lord?

  39. Midwest St. Michael says:

    Well, I suppose here’s Pete Townshend’s answer:

    I don’t care about pollution
    I’m an air-conditioned gypsy
    That’s my solution
    Watch the police and the tax man miss me
    I’m mobile
    Oooooh, yeah, hee!

    Mobile, mobile, mobile yeah
    —————————————

    All in mischievous fun, you see.

    MSM

  40. RAve says:

    Exactly as predicted! Shameless ideologues are misusing Laudato Si already (and this is from a Catholic who knows better and yet intentionally misuses it):

    “In the past, candidates who are both Catholic and pro-choice have been barred from speaking in Church venues, even turned away at the Communion rail. It’s not clear if similar displays of disapproval will surround those who break with the pope’s environmental line, but even raising the question injects a new variable into the 2016 race.”

    Supporting abortion is always always always evil (and the Church has repeatedly made that clear). Rejecting the theory of anthropogenic climate change, or rejecting any specific political solution to address environmental issues, is not evil (as paragraph 188 of Laudato Si makes clear)!

    http://www.cruxnow.com/church/2015/06/19/popes-environmental-manifesto-looks-like-a-game-changer-in-the-us/?utm_content=buffer8e690&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

  41. ‘“Save the liturgy, save the world” is actually (sort of) said in the encyclical (no. 233-237).’

    I see no recognition in those paragraphs–nor have I found any hint elsewhere in anything our Holy Father has said or written–that there is anything about the Church’s current liturgy that needs to be “saved”

  42. jacobi says:

    Tut, Tut , Father,

    But here’s another mischievous thought. Immediately cancel all pilgrimage to Rome other than those on foot, with some allowance for “oldies” I trust.

    A747 full of pilgrims from say Mexico City to the Rome will account for circa 620 tonnes of co2, the great bugbear, not only into the environment but into the rarified upper atmosphere at 38,000 ft, where it will have maximum heat retaining effect.

    Mark you that would not be very popular with the Italian Tourist Board and Hoteliers associations, not to mention the Vatican Treasury. But the you can’t keep everyone happy?

  43. HyacinthClare says:

    Everybody come out here… 116 degrees this week in Phoenix. As long as it stays bone dry (until late June, usually, sometimes early July), we use a thingy my husband calls a “swamp cooler” that keeps us as cool as air conditioning, windows wide open. But when the dew point goes up, our A/C comes on and I’m enormously grateful to God and the solar panels on my roof and the electric company and whoever the blessed person was who invented air conditioning, every day, all day long.

  44. drohan says:

    I have already countered my liberal friends with the list you mentioned Father. I also included Pacendi for good measure. They gave me a narrow eyed glare.

  45. Joseph-Mary says:

    While we should all be good stewards of the earth, I am bothered by the emphasis on that over the care of souls. Also bothered by the embracing and promoting of some people who are against what the Church teaches on faith and morals. They certainly are not the ones I would seek advice from because of their agendas; there are other experts who actually think in tune with the age old teaching of the Church.

    I happen to live in a beautiful city. People are proud of its beauty and of the land around us. There is not trash or filth littering here. Our air is clean too. And we are not under burdensome laws for this to be the case but rather we want to live in a clean environment. Many, many bike to work or school so we have lots of bike paths. Recycling is easy here. Industry here is clean as well. It can be done!
    As to A/C—I am very heat sensitive. But here the temp drops at night and so with the house open and with fans (need energy there, am afraid), even on hot days the A/C is not needed until late in the afternoon when the western sun beats down. Without A/C I would have to live in the basement in the summertime heat.

  46. Traductora says:

    I’m sorry, but this wasn’t an encyclical. It was a manifesto. A manifesto from a representative of an aging-out generation trying to impose all the Luddite ideas popular in the 1970s.

  47. Imrahil says:

    Dear Joseph-Mary (and as a general point)

    I am bothered by the emphasis on that over the care of souls.

    I’m not in the position to advise anyone. But if I were, I’d say:

    As long as it’s only the emphasis, the best strategy is to ignore it. If you can say “what the Pope says is, in itself, good”, leave it at that.

    The reason: while the Pope is to be obeyed in what he actually teaches (principally, not absolutely, if the teaching is as here fallible), there is no obligation of the Catholic to emphasize himself what the Pope has happened to emphasize.

  48. Supertradmum says:

    Sadly, the poorest of the poor cannot comment on this blog, as can mostly middle and upper class commentators. It is time for Americans to travel to other nations to see how most people live, without air, sometimes without clean water, and with much less food. Go visit real orthodox contemplative convents abroad, which have little comforts in order to have solidarity with the poor, as some in England, who eat the cheapest bread and drink the cheapest tea, and do not have either air or adequate heat in the winter in order to join themselves with the poor. Tyburn where I was “in” for several months, wash the floor with water only, and no swiffers. Toast and tea for breakfast or toast and coffee. And hard work all day long…

    The winners of many marathons in the States come from Africa. When interviewed, one of the best said that he and his friends ran to school daily, many miles, as the parents had no car, and there was no public transport, and no air conditioning in the schools. When they come here for summer runs, they can endure the heat.

    Why are so many defensive about First World Problems? Third World Problems mean life or death; and the Pope is speaking not only to America, but to the world. We have to admit we are spoiled here, rarely think of the consequences of gross consumerism, and think that God will not judge us for waste and pursuing novelty?

  49. iamlucky13 says:

    I admit, I haven’t read the whole encyclical yet, but are you guys all sure you’re reading the right document? Check and make sure it’s titled Laudato Si and on it’s on the Vatican website, and not An Inconvenient Truth on Al Gore’s website. Reading a lot of the remarks here, it sounds like people are responding to the latter, not the former.

    Or perhaps you’re reading the secular media, such as the Washington Post, normally very vocal in criticizing those who oppose environmental regulations, but the moment a prominent Catholic says something they agree with, the publish they headline, “Pope Francis wants to roll back progress.” No joke. The pope echos many of the things they’ve published over the years, and they respond by ostracizing him like a Luddite.

    So far I have found only a single reference to air-conditioning, and it was vague at worst about anything wrong with air conditioning when it’s actually needed.

    I also wonder if he picked that example in part because growing up in Argentina, I presume air conditioning was an unusual luxury that skewed his perspective in a similar way to how he seems to view capitalism. Plus he has an Italian father and has been spending just a bit of time in Italy recently, where he’s probably been repeatedly exposed to Italy’s bizarre superstition about air conditioning and the evil Colpo d’Aria – if you don’t know about that phrase, you have to look it up.

    He also didn’t exactly come down hard on planes, trains, and automobiles, of which the encyclical said:

    “Humanity has entered a new era in which our technical prowess has brought us to a crossroads. We are the beneficiaries of two centuries of enormous waves of change: steam engines, railways, the telegraph, electricity, automobiles, aeroplanes, chemical industries, modern medicine, information technology and, more recently, the digital revolution, robotics, biotechnologies and nanotechnologies. It is right to rejoice in these advances and to be excited by the immense possibilities which they continue to open up before us, for “science and technology are wonderful products of a God-given human creativity”.[81] The modification of nature for useful purposes has distinguished the human family from the beginning; technology itself “expresses the inner tension that impels man gradually to overcome material limitations”.[82] Technology has remedied countless evils which used to harm and limit human beings.”

    All-in-all, much of the encyclical sounds similar to what previous popes have written. Take Pope Benedict XVI, for example:

    “This means that technologically advanced societies must be prepared to encourage more sober lifestyles, while reducing their energy consumption and improving its efficiency.”

  50. Supertradmum says:

    iamlucky13, I am reading it right now and it is beautiful…and with many references to St. John Paul II and Benedict VI. I am not finished with it yet, as I am purposefully taking my time and looking at the footnotes.

  51. Clinton R. says:

    Two points that are concerning in Laudato Si:

    1 Paragraph 175: to bring
    about integral and timely disarmament, food security
    and peace; to guarantee the protection of
    the environment and to regulate migration: for
    all this, there is urgent need of a true world political
    authority, as my predecessor Blessed John
    XXIII indicated some years ago”

    What is this ‘world politicial authority’ the Pope has in mind? The UN? New World Order? This is reminiscent of Paul VI putting the hope of peace in the United Nations.

    2. Why does the Pope end the encyclical with two different prayers? Is not the Pope to preach the name of Christ to all men? Is Christ so offensive that a separate prayer needed to be added?

    Charitably put, this is an encyclical that is like none before it, and of course it is already being touted by the likes of Obama and his ilk. Not surprisingly, Obama fails to mention the condemnation of abortion, as does the MSM. But now the worry is the reaction of Laudato Si, especially within the Church will resemble the ‘spirit’ that followed the Second Vatican Council. Don’t pay heed to what actually was stated, just do what you feel it says.

    Domine, miserere nobis. +JMJ+

  52. Mike says:

    Immediately cancel all pilgrimage to Rome other than those on foot . . .

    As I recall, at the time of his election, Pope Francis asked that people not travel long distances to Rome for his installation but instead give to the poor the money they would have spent to do so.

  53. DonL says:

    There does seem to be one important “link” missing from all this “science” talk–mixed as it is with political salad and tossed with a strong dash of “inequality dressing.”
    That something missing is the “science (consensus anyone?) of evolution and the Darwinian concept of “the survival of the fittest.”” Thus, “nations distributing the wealth” as Francis desires, is clearly anti-nature and anti-science as it interferes with the natural order of things.
    This must be accepted in keeping with the “seamless garment” theory of Chicago theology, no?

  54. DonL says:

    “This means that technologically advanced societies must be prepared to encourage more sober lifestyles, while reducing their energy consumption and improving its efficiency”

    All well and good, IF we are thereby willing to forgo all the advancement made to mankind; medicine, food production, etc that more than helps the poor, and return to a more primitive lifestyle. In fact, his encyclical has been read by millions of people on the computer–of all things.
    You can’t really have it two ways in a pluralistic society. When you buy a pig –the mud and swill come with the bacon.

  55. iamlucky13 says:

    “All well and good, IF we are thereby willing to forgo all the advancement made to mankind; medicine, food production, etc that more than helps the poor, and return to a more primitive lifestyle.”

    You’re putting words in Pope Benedict’s mouth. That is not what he said nor intended, and the context makes that clear. Nor is it what Pope Francis was saying when he included that quote from Pope Benedict in Laudato Si. In fact, Pope Francis specifically praised all of those advances of modern life. Then both of those popes asked us to work on figuring out ways to provide these good things with minimal side effects, and in general to use our resources prudently and not be mindless consumers.

    “Two points that are concerning in Laudato Si:

    1 Paragraph 175: to bring
    about integral and timely disarmament, food security
    and peace; to guarantee the protection of
    the environment and to regulate migration: for
    all this, there is urgent need of a true world political
    authority, as my predecessor Blessed John
    XXIII indicated some years ago”

    What is this ‘world politicial authority’ the Pope has in mind?”

    I also am at a loss as to what world political authority the pope has in mind. History shows us a lot of oppression and exploitation when political entities gain too broad of authority, including the Spanish colonial rule of Argentina, and running right up to the United Nations, with its whole-hearted embrace of contraception, homosexuality, and even abortion.

    However, again, this was a quote from Pope Benedict in Caritas in Veritae, not Pope Francis originally. Although I don’t know where’s he going with that line, going to the source does give some hint of where he’s coming from, as he points out that economic activity crosses borders, but political authority, in general does not. Among other things, this calls to mind the practice of avoiding laws that protect workers and ensure some level of minimum wage by moving work to areas where such laws don’t exist.

    Now on the one hand, those businesses actually can greatly improve the lives of workers in poor countries with fair employment terms, while still saving boatloads of money compared to doing the work in the US. However, as a series of recent tragedies has shown, that’s not always what they do. That includes a couple cases involving Apple, who as one of the most profitable companies in the world, is not even remotely able to claim they couldn’t afford safe factories or contractors who pay whatever the local living wage is.

  56. TNCath says:

    The Holy Father is cordially invited to spend one week in July at my house in Tennessee without air conditioning. At the end of that week, we shall see what he thinks of air conditioning.

  57. Bea says:

    MORE MISCHIEVOUS THOUGHTS
    According to CruxMag “It is our duty to obey” the LSD [Oops …LS] Encyclical) .
    Today was 105 ?It is now past 6PM (MST Time) and its cooled down to 102?.
    If I did my duty and obeyed, I’d now be in the hospital with heat prostration, dehydration, heat stroke and all the goodies that come with it or else I’d be in the morgue .

    There was an old woman
    Who read “Laudato Si”,
    Read CruxMag,
    and said: “Woe is me
    I must turn off my A/C”

    The next thing she knew
    She was standing ‘fore her Judge
    “Did you obey “Laudato Si”
    “Yes indeed, I did not fudge,
    And to CruxMag I hold no grudge”

    “Not for reading “Laudato Si”
    Off to Hades you must go
    But for reading the Crux
    That is a no-no”
    “Its the year of Mercy Don’t make me go”

    HE relented, sent her back
    Believe me, it was quite a feat
    Without His Mercy
    She knew “HE was so sweet
    Because by now, I’d be cooked meat.”

    The moral of the story,
    My dear friends
    “Laudato Si” (just for fun)
    But never read the crux again
    For you never know where you will end.

  58. Venerator Sti Lot says:

    Supertradmum, when you wrote “Sound bites are ruining the real meaning of this work”, were you including what had been officially undertaken in the name of the Locutor Mordax Maximus the previous day?:

    http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2015/06/18/in-tweeting-frenzy-pope-calls-for-global-conversation-on-the-environment/

    (I venture ‘Locutor Mordax’ under correction, as the ‘frase incisiva’ Google gave me as Italian led to nothing among the entries in the Vatican ‘Lexicon recentis Latinitatis’ and ‘Soundbitifex Maximus’ sounded too much like something from a Wile E, Coyote cartoon.)

  59. Sacred1 says:

    I do not interpret the Holy Father’s comments on AC to mean that AC is wrong and must be given up. AC can save lives in heat waves and can thus do a lot of good; this is in line with his comments that science and technology have immense power to help humans and the environment, and should be used toward those ends. I think-think!-the point is that we need to consider our intentions when using AC. Are we using AC out of an excessive desire and attachment to material comfort? The answer to this question involves the broader point of the writing: we must consider the effect on any technology we use on the environment, ourselves, and others, together with the deeper thought about the real ends for which we use the technology.

  60. SKAY says:

    ” there is urgent need of a true world political
    authority, as my predecessor Blessed John
    XXIII indicated some years ago” ”

    It sounds like a good idea on paper except that the very dysfunctional UN points out
    what could and would go wrong. We have very few saints in politics(if any at all) and any “world
    political authority” would be by definition — very political.

    As the saying goes-“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely”

  61. jschicago says:

    LOL Good call Father about the sedia gestatoria. If he were to ditch the Pope Mobile and walk around, a lot of people wouldn’t be able to see him, but if he were carried on the sedia gestatoria, he would be raised up for everyone to see. He would be more secure in it than walking up the aisle of St. Peter’s Basilica. Pope Benedict got knocked down by that crazy lady once when he processed up the aisle. The sedia gestatoria is really practical if you think about it. I was at a concert last night in Chicago for Mumford and Sons, and the stage is not at ground level, but “raised” up so we can see them better.

  62. Venerator Sti Lot says:

    jschicago implicitly suggests a reason for preferring a sedia gestatoria proper to a lecticula: the resurgent crazy lady (or whomever) could knock over a lecticarius or two like fewer-than-ninepins: there’s stability in numbers, or a better chance of it, or so I suppose, as however many palafrenieri were left standing could dispose their collectively numerous legs to good effect.

  63. WYMiriam says:

    This is just an odd thought that perhaps doesn’t connect directly to Laudato si: today I was in a very small town (population less than 500, I believe), and in the 5 or 6 hours I spent there, at least 5 coal trains went through town, their whistles drowning out all but the most vigorous shouting. I have no clue what Pope Francis thinks about the coal industry or coal-fired electric plants [I do have some idea about what President Obama thinks about them, and I don’t like it at all]. What occurred to me when those trains went through was not “oh, look at all the man-made-global-warming-enablers!!” but rather, “gee, those whistles and those trains are symbols of at least two very important and useful things: (1) hundreds of men [that’s generic] have steady, well-paying jobs (my younger brother is one of them, so please spare me your global-warming sob stories), both in coal mines and on the railroads; (2) that coal gets transformed into . . . . guess what!!! . . . . electricity — the electricity that heats OUR homes, and cooks OUR food, and lights OUR buildings, and . . . transmits THE POPE’S latest encyclical on the environment over the internet so it can be read and dissected and discussed.

    Does some electricity get wasted? Yep — all the time, along the wires it’s carried through, to begin with. I’m afraid I’ll have to read more of the encyclical than I originally planned, to see whether or not Francis actually suggested that people in such countries as the USofA cut down on their consumption of electricity . . . . because the discussion of the encyclical on this blog is beginning to sound an awful lot like “eat your vegetables; people in India are starving!” Now, how I got the idea that somehow poor countries could have more electricity by us not using as much, I don’t know, because it’s just not possible to put electricity in a box and export it.

    Or maybe I just need to go get some much-needed sleep, because, after all, this whole environmental thing is a matter for prudential judgement, is it not?, and is NOT a matter of faith and morals. I submit that we are allowed to disagree with the pope about the environment, pollution and its causes, and so forth, because this is a matter for prudential judgement. Please, someone, correct me if I’m wrong in saying that it is not the pope’s job to tell the nations of the world what their specific policies as to pollution/global warming/cooling/climate change should be, which is what it sounds as if he is doing!

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