Pope Francis' Leaked Encyclical Draft Attributes Climate Change To Human Activity
Posted: Updated:
L’Espresso, an Italian magazine, published the 192-page document on its website Monday. The
draft encyclical says that while there may be other factors involved in climate
change, "numerous scientific studies indicate that the majority of the
global warming in recent decades is due to the large concentration of
greenhouse gases... emitted above all due to human activity," according to
a Huffington Post translation of the document.
The draft opens by saying climate
change is the Earth’s way of protesting “irresponsible use and abuse of the
goods that God placed in her.”
“We have grown up thinking that we
were her owners and dominators, authorized to loot her,” the draft reads,
according to a translation by The Guardian. “The violence that exists
in the human heart, wounded by sin, is also manifest in the symptoms of illness
that we see in the Earth, the water, the air and in living things.”
The document goes on to declare
that access to clean drinking water is "an essential human right,
fundamental and universal." It describes the disproportionate effects of
climate change on poor populations, whose "livelihoods depend heavily on
nature reserves." It also accuses those with more resources and greater
economic power of "making the problems or hiding the symptoms" of
climate change.
“The attitudes that stand in the
way of a solution, even among believers, range from negation of the problem, to
indifference, to convenient resignation or blind faith in technical solutions,”
the draft reads. "Today we cannot help but recognize that a true ecological
approach always becomes a social approach, which must integrate justice in the
discussions of the environment, to hear the cry of the earth as much as the cry
of the poor."
Vatican officials reacted swiftly to the leak, saying the document was not
the final version of the pope’s letter and urging journalists to respect a
Thursday embargo. However, multiple U.S. publications, including The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, reported on the contents of the
document Monday.
The Vatican announced on June 4
that the encyclical would not be released to the press until Thursday, June
18. It is unclear how L'Espresso acquired the draft ahead of the embargo.
Joshua McElwee, who covers the
Vatican for the U.S.-based National Catholic Reporter, tweeted that most other
Italian news outlets had decided
not to publish anything about the contents of the leaked document.
A Vatican official called the leak
a “heinous act” in an interview with Bloomberg.
Pope Francis has spoken often about
the moral obligation to protect the environment. His
encyclical on the topic has been anticipated for over a year.
On May 15, Cardinal Peter Turkson,
a Vatican official who helped write a first draft of the encyclical, emphasized
the “all-embracing moral imperative” to care for the
environment. He said that wealthy countries, in particular, “are morally
obligated... to reduce their own carbon emissions and to help protect poorer
countries from the disasters caused or exacerbated by the excesses of
industrialization.”
The leaked draft invites people
everywhere to participate in the task of environmental protection, though it
remains to be seen to what extent the pope can actually influence the global
conversation on climate change. A HuffPost/YouGov poll in May found that while 82 percent
of Americans and 84 percent of American Catholics believe humans have a “moral
duty to protect the environment,” only 52 percent of the general population and
the same percentage of U.S. Catholics think climate change is caused by humans.
(For the record, the overwhelming scientific consensus is that climate change
is indeed being caused by humans.)
The document offers a word of hope,
however, saying the task of protecting the earth should “unite the whole human
family.”
“The Creator does not abandon us,
he never backed down in his plan of love," the draft reads, according to
HuffPost's translation. "Humanity still has the ability to work together
to build our common home.”
This article has been updated
with translated excerpts of the leaked encyclical.
No comments:
Post a Comment