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Fox News reported the following

Pope says coronavirus could be ‘nature’s response’ to climate change

April 9, 2020

Pope Francis likened the coronavirus pandemic to recent fires and floods as one of “nature’s responses” to the world’s ambivalence to climate change.

“There is an expression in Spanish: ‘God always forgives, we forgive sometimes, but nature never forgives,’” the pope said in an interview …

The pope went on to say he believed the COVID-19 outbreak that has ravaged the globe could inspire change. https://www.foxnews.com/world/pope-coronavirus-natures-response-climate-change

There have been pestilences and pandemics throughout human history.

As far as COVID-19 and the climate goes, consider that “The coronavirus COVID-19 is affecting 209 countries and territories around the world and 2 international conveyances” (https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/). If you actually look at the list of countries and territories affected (see, for example the list of incidents and deaths by country at https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/), you will see that hot, warm, moderate, cool, and cold nations have it. Places with forests, places without forests, places with lots of cities, places with few cities, etc. have it.

That is not to say there is no such thing as climate change.

But for Pope Francis to suggest that climate change, as opposed to intentional human actions related to the consumption of biblically unclean meats (see, for example US agreeing to increase spending. Could the new coronavirus be a chimera? and  “Tucker Carlson Airs Report Claiming Coronavirus ‘Probably Originated From A Laboratory In Wuhan’ ” Horseshoe Bats and Pangolins) and probably human viral research (watch Biological Warfare and Prophecy), as a possible cause simply does not mesh with known geographic facts of COVID-19.

Pope Francis likes to portray himself as an environmental advocate. That position seems to endear him with many globalists, secularists, environmentalists, and ecumenalists.

Back in 2015, Pope Francis put out an encyclical titled Laudato Si, which basically was his call for governments of the world to enforce his proposed social order to deal with issues he saw as important, including the climate.

Here are some quotes from what Pope Francis (via his translators) wrote:

1. “LAUDATO SI’, mi’ Signore” – “Praise be to you, my Lord”. In the words of this beautiful canticle, Saint Francis of Assisi reminds us that our common home is like a sister with whom we share our life and a beautiful mother who opens her arms to embrace us. “Praise be to you, my Lord, through our Sister, Mother Earth, who sustains and governs us, and who produces various fruit with coloured flowers and herbs”.[1]

2. This sister now cries out to us because of the harm we have inflicted on her by our irresponsible use and abuse of the goods with which God has endowed her. We have come to see ourselves as her lords and masters, entitled to plunder her at will. …

6. My predecessor Benedict XVI likewise proposed “eliminating the structural causes of the dysfunctions of the world economy and correcting models of growth which have proved incapable of ensuring respect for the environment”.[10] He observed that the world cannot be analyzed by isolating only one of its aspects, since “the book of nature is one and indivisible”, and includes the environment, life, sexuality, the family, social relations, and so forth. It follows that “the deterioration of nature is closely connected to the culture which shapes human coexistence”. …

7. These statements of the Popes echo the reflections of numerous scientists, philosophers, theologians and civic groups, all of which have enriched the Church’s thinking on these questions. Outside the Catholic Church, other Churches and Christian communities – and other religions as well – have expressed deep concern and offered valuable reflections on issues which all of us find disturbing. To give just one striking example, I would mention the statements made by the beloved Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, with whom we share the hope of full ecclesial communion.

8. Patriarch Bartholomew has spoken in particular of the need for each of us to repent of the ways we have harmed the planet, for “inasmuch as we all generate small ecological damage”, we are called to acknowledge “our contribution, smaller or greater, to the disfigurement and destruction of creation”. …

9. At the same time, Bartholomew has drawn attention to the ethical and spiritual roots of environmental problems, which require that we look for solutions not only in technology but in a change of humanity; otherwise we would be dealing merely with symptoms. He asks us to replace consumption with sacrifice, greed with generosity, wastefulness with a spirit of sharing, an asceticism which “entails learning to give, and not simply to give up. It is a way of loving, of moving gradually away from what I want to what God’s world needs. It is liberation from fear, greed and compulsion”.  …

18. The continued acceleration of changes affecting humanity and the planet is coupled today with a more intensified pace of life and work which might be called “rapidification”. Although change is part of the working of complex systems, the speed with which human activity has developed contrasts with the naturally slow pace of biological evolution. …

20. Some forms of pollution are part of people’s daily experience. Exposure to atmospheric pollutants produces a broad spectrum of health hazards, especially for the poor, and causes millions of premature deaths. People take sick, for example, from breathing high levels of smoke from fuels used in cooking or heating. There is also pollution that affects everyone, caused by transport, industrial fumes, substances which contribute to the acidification of soil and water, fertilizers, insecticides, fungicides, herbicides and agrotoxins in general. Technology, which, linked to business interests, is presented as the only way of solving these problems, in fact proves incapable of seeing the mysterious network of relations between things and so sometimes solves one problem only to create others. …

21. Account must also be taken of the pollution produced by residue, including dangerous waste present in different areas. Each year hundreds of millions of tons of waste are generated, much of it non-biodegradable, highly toxic and radioactive, from homes and businesses, from construction and demolition sites, from clinical, electronic and industrial sources. …

22. These problems are closely linked to a throwaway culture which affects the excluded just as it quickly reduces things to rubbish. …

23. The climate is a common good, belonging to all and meant for all. At the global level, it is a complex system linked to many of the essential conditions for human life. A very solid scientific consensus indicates that we are presently witnessing a disturbing warming of the climatic system. In recent decades this warming has been accompanied by a constant rise in the sea level and, it would appear, by an increase of extreme weather events, even if a scientifically determinable cause cannot be assigned to each particular phenomenon. Humanity is called to recognize the need for changes of lifestyle, production and consumption, in order to combat this warming or at least the human causes which produce or aggravate it. …

25. Climate change is a global problem with grave implications: environmental, social, economic, political and for the distribution of goods. … There has been a tragic rise in the number of migrants seeking to flee from the growing poverty caused by environmental degradation. …

29. One particularly serious problem is the quality of water available to the poor. Every day, unsafe water results in many deaths and the spread of water-related diseases, including those caused by microorganisms and chemical substances. …

32. The earth’s resources are also being plundered because of short-sighted approaches to the economy, commerce and production. …

40. Oceans not only contain the bulk of our planet’s water supply, but also most of the immense variety of living creatures, many of them still unknown to us and threatened for various reasons. …

45. In some places, rural and urban alike, the privatization of certain spaces has restricted people’s access to places of particular beauty. …

51. Inequity affects not only individuals but entire countries; it compels us to consider an ethics of international relations. A true “ecological debt” exists, particularly between the global north and south, connected to commercial imbalances with effects on the environment, and the disproportionate use of natural resources by certain countries over long periods of time. … The warming caused by huge consumption on the part of some rich countries has repercussions on the poorest areas of the world, especially Africa, where a rise in temperature, together with drought, has proved devastating for farming. …

52. The foreign debt of poor countries has become a way of controlling them, yet this is not the case where ecological debt is concerned. In different ways, developing countries, where the most important reserves of the biosphere are found, continue to fuel the development of richer countries at the cost of their own present and future. The land of the southern poor is rich and mostly unpolluted, yet access to ownership of goods and resources for meeting vital needs is inhibited by a system of commercial relations and ownership which is structurally perverse. The developed countries ought to help pay this debt by significantly limiting their consumption of non-renewable energy and by assisting poorer countries to support policies and programmes of sustainable development. …

53. These situations have caused sister earth, along with all the abandoned of our world, to cry out, pleading that we take another course. …

57. It is foreseeable that, once certain resources have been depleted, the scene will be set for new wars…

61… There are regions now at high risk and, aside from all doomsday predictions, the present world system is certainly unsustainable from a number of points of view, for we have stopped thinking about the goals of human activity. …

VI. THE COMMON DESTINATION OF GOODS

93. Whether believers or not, we are agreed today that the earth is essentially a shared inheritance, whose fruits are meant to benefit everyone. … The Christian tradition has never recognized the right to private property as absolute or inviolable, and has stressed the social purpose of all forms of private property. …

94. The rich and the poor have equal dignity, for “the Lord is the maker of them all” (Prov 22:2). “He himself made both small and great” (Wis 6:7), and “he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good” (Mt 5:45). This has practical consequences, such as those pointed out by the bishops of Paraguay: “Every campesino has a natural right to possess a reasonable allotment of land where he can establish his home, work for subsistence of his family and a secure life.  …

95. The natural environment is a collective good, the patrimony of all humanity and the responsibility of everyone. If we make something our own, it is only to administer it for the good of all. If we do not, we burden our consciences with the weight of having denied the existence of others. That is why the New Zealand bishops asked what the commandment “Thou shall not kill” means when “twenty percent of the world’s population consumes resources at a rate that robs the poor nations and future generations of what they need to survive”. …

99. … One Person of the Trinity entered into the created cosmos, throwing in his lot with it, even to the cross.

THE HUMAN ROOTS OF THE ECOLOGICAL CRISIS

101. It would hardly be helpful to describe symptoms without acknowledging the human origins of the ecological crisis. …

106. The basic problem goes even deeper: it is the way that humanity has taken up technology and its development according to an undifferentiated and one-dimensional paradigm. …

114. All of this shows the urgent need for us to move forward in a bold cultural revolution. …

117. Neglecting to monitor the harm done to nature and the environmental impact of our decisions is only the most striking sign of a disregard for the message contained in the structures of nature itself. When we fail to acknowledge as part of reality the worth of a poor person, a human embryo, a person with disabilities – to offer just a few examples – it becomes difficult to hear the cry of nature itself; everything is connected. …

126. We can also look to the great tradition of monasticism. …

133. It is difficult to make a general judgement about genetic modification (GM), whether vegetable or animal, medical or agricultural, since these vary greatly among themselves and call for specific considerations. …

134. Although no conclusive proof exists that GM cereals may be harmful to human beings, and in some regions their use has brought about economic growth which has helped to resolve problems, there remain a number of significant difficulties which should not be underestimated. …

144. A consumerist vision of human beings, encouraged by the mechanisms of today’s globalized economy, has a levelling effect on cultures, diminishing the immense variety which is the heritage of all humanity. Attempts to resolve all problems through uniform regulations or technical interventions can lead to overlooking the complexities of local problems which demand the active participation of all members of the community. New processes taking shape cannot always fit into frameworks imported from outside; they need to be based in the local culture itself. …

146. In this sense, it is essential to show special care for indigenous communities and their cultural traditions. …

155…The acceptance of our bodies as God’s gift is vital for welcoming and accepting the entire world as a gift from the Father and our common home, whereas thinking that we enjoy absolute power over our own bodies turns, often subtly, into thinking that we enjoy absolute power over creation. Learning to accept our body, to care for it and to respect its fullest meaning, is an essential element of any genuine human ecology. Also, valuing one’s own body in its femininity or masculinity is necessary if I am going to be able to recognize myself in an encounter with someone who is different. In this way we can joyfully accept the specific gifts of another man or woman, the work of God the Creator, and find mutual enrichment. It is not a healthy attitude which would seek “to cancel out sexual difference because it no longer knows how to confront it”. …

161. Doomsday predictions can no longer be met with irony or disdain. We may well be leaving to coming generations debris, desolation and filth. …

165. We know that technology based on the use of highly polluting fossil fuels – especially coal, but also oil and, to a lesser degree, gas – needs to be progressively replaced without delay. …

171. The strategy of buying and selling “carbon credits” can lead to a new form of speculation which would not help reduce the emission of polluting gases worldwide. …

172. For poor countries, the priorities must be to eliminate extreme poverty and to promote the social development of their people. At the same time, they need to acknowledge the scandalous level of consumption in some privileged sectors of their population and to combat corruption more effectively. …

194. For new models of progress to arise, there is a need to change “models of global development”;[136] this will entail a responsible reflection on “the meaning of the economy and its goals with an eye to correcting its malfunctions and misapplications”. …

197. What is needed is a politics which is far-sighted and capable of a new, integral and interdisciplinary approach to handling the different aspects of the crisis. …

201. The majority of people living on our planet profess to be believers. This should spur religions to dialogue among themselves for the sake of protecting nature, defending the poor, and building networks of respect and fraternity. …

I. TOWARDS A NEW LIFESTYLE

203. Since the market tends to promote extreme consumerism in an effort to sell its products, people can easily get caught up in a whirlwind of needless buying and spending. Compulsive consumerism is one example of how the techno-economic paradigm affects individuals. …

205. Yet all is not lost. Human beings, while capable of the worst, are also capable of rising above themselves, choosing again what is good, and making a new start, despite their mental and social conditioning. …

220. This conversion calls for a number of attitudes which together foster a spirit of generous care, full of tenderness. …

228. Care for nature is part of a lifestyle which includes the capacity for living together and communion. Jesus reminded us that we have God as our common Father and that this makes us brothers and sisters. Fraternal love can only be gratuitous; it can never be a means of repaying others for what they have done or will do for us. That is why it is possible to love our enemies. This same gratuitousness inspires us to love and accept the wind, the sun and the clouds, even though we cannot control them. In this sense, we can speak of a “universal fraternity”.  …

230. Saint Therese of Lisieux invites us to practise the little way of love, not to miss out on a kind word, a smile or any small gesture which sows peace and friendship.  …

236. It is in the Eucharist that all that has been created finds its greatest exaltation. …

237. On Sunday, our participation in the Eucharist has special importance. Sunday, like the Jewish Sabbath, is meant to be a day which heals our relationships with God, with ourselves, with others and with the world. Sunday is the day of the Resurrection, the “first day” of the new creation, whose first fruits are the Lord’s risen humanity, the pledge of the final transfiguration of all created reality. It also proclaims “man’s eternal rest in God”. …

238… Consequently, “when we contemplate with wonder the universe in all its grandeur and beauty, we must praise the whole Trinity”. …

239. For Christians, believing in one God who is trinitarian communion suggests that the Trinity has left its mark on all creation. Saint Bonaventure went so far as to say that human beings, before sin, were able to see how each creature “testifies that God is three”. The reflection of the Trinity was there to be recognized in nature “when that book was open to man and our eyes had not yet become darkened”. …

240… Everything is interconnected, and this invites us to develop a spirituality of that global solidarity which flows from the mystery of the Trinity. …

VIII. QUEEN OF ALL CREATION

241. Mary, the Mother who cared for Jesus, now cares with maternal affection and pain for this wounded world. Just as her pierced heart mourned the death of Jesus, so now she grieves for the sufferings of the crucified poor and for the creatures of this world laid waste by human power. Completely transfigured, she now lives with Jesus, and all creatures sing of her fairness. She is the Woman, “clothed in the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars” (Rev 12:1). Carried up into heaven, she is the Mother and Queen of all creation. http://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html

Much of the media back in 2015 was focused on the climate change aspects of this encyclical. As a natural health proponent, I certainly favor reductions in the use of pesticides, herbicides, various other toxins, and rubbish. As far as how Christians should view the environment, the article The Bible, Christians, and the Environment has scriptures to consider. As far as weather goes, those who actually believe the Bible may wish to check out the article Weather Blessings and Sorrows.

Pope Francis’ paper, Laudato Si included a dangerous ecumenical appeal  (see item 7), a mention of his church’s public acceptance of evolution (see item 18), ‘land reform’ (see item 94), considering consumption as a form of murder (see item 95), pushing the cross (see item 99), a call for ‘cultural revolution’ (see item 114), hints denouncing abortion (see item 117), an endorsement of monasticism (see item 126), a refusal to condemn GMOs (see item 133), a somewhat endorsement of GMO grains with caution (see item 134), special interfaith dialogue (see items 146 & 201), discouragement of transgenderism (see item 155), “universal fraternity” (see item 228), a reference to Therese of Lisieux, appeals to the Eucharist (see items 236 & 237, a plug for Sunday (see item 237), plugs for the Greco-Roman Trinity (see items 238 & 239 & 240), appeals to ‘Mary’ (see 241), and sprinkled throughout with hints about a new economic world order that he wants.

Notice a news report from June 2015 that noticed some of the problems with Laudato Si:

June 24, 2015

The Pope’s encyclical appears to focus on climate change and environmental degradation but the larger focus is his indictment of capitalism and the presumed greed that it spawns, leading Pope Francis to call for a global government solution. The language in the encyclical looks like it came from the UN’s Agenda 21 and the Club of Rome’s Limits to Growth. Both were deeply flawed analyses of problems and solutions.  …

The call for global governance is reminiscent of President Jacques Chirac’s 2000 statement that “For the first time, humanity is instituting a genuine instrument (the Kyoto Treaty) of global governance, one that should find a place within the World Environmental Organisation which France and European Union would like to see established.”

The notion that the world should be run by an organization modeled after the UN or the European Commission and European Union is chilling and ought to lead to the prompt dismissal of the Pope’s philosophy but not his personal values or focus on reducing poverty. http://fuelfix.com/blog/2015/06/24/pope-francis-call-for-global-governance/

To Pope Francis, a cooperative new world order, not the return of Jesus Christ and the establishment of the Kingdom of God, is the solution. The Bible shows that his way will not work (cf. Revelation 17-18), but that Jesus will return to solve the issues the world faces (Revelation 19), including ones related to environmental disaster:

15 Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!” 16 And the twenty-four elders who sat before God on their thrones fell on their faces and worshiped God, 17 saying:

“We give You thanks, O Lord God Almighty,
The One who is and who was and who is to come,
Because You have taken Your great power and reigned.
18 The nations were angry, and Your wrath has come,
And the time of the dead, that they should be judged,
And that You should reward Your servants the prophets and the saints, And those who fear Your name, small and great, And should destroy those who destroy the earth.” (Revelation 11:15-18)

Revelation 11 is clearly showing that human efforts to stop ‘climate change’ will not work.

But God’s ways will work and restore the earth during the millennium (see also The Gospel of the Kingdom of God).

Of course, many politicians, the United Nations, and those in the mainstream media believe having Pope Francis’ endorsement of change needed for the economy and environment is consistent with their view that humanity will be able to solve its problems. Yet, the Kingdom of God is the answer.

However, the Pope’s message is popular and has been welcomed by many. Consider that in September 2015, he gave a message to the US Congress as well as the United Nations, which included at some items in his Laudato Si encyclical.

This, in turn, got a climate and social control agenda, called the ‘2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development,’ approved by the United Nations that included many items the Vatican has been promoting.

The UN has been pushing that agenda since. Details on that agenda and the true solution can be found in our free online booklet: The Gospel of the Kingdom of God.

For those whose native language is not English, it is available online in about 100 different languages which can be accessed at www.ccog.org.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, April 9th, 2020 at 7:45 am and is filed under Religious News.

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