Pope Francis Encyclical Climate Change
Last updated 6/23/2015 at 9:24am
Pope Francis on Thursday delivered his encyclical (a letter to all bishops of the Roman Catholic Church, about 5,000 worldwide) on the subject of climate change. It will be up to the bishops to pass along the pope’s message of both moral responsibility and directed action concerning our planet’s future to the over 1.2 billion Catholics throughout the world.
Pope Francis is the first pontiff to hold the equivalent of an Associate of Science degree in Chemistry, and because our atmosphere is literally chemistry in action, he knows the subject well and writes about it even better. The encyclical is an eloquent, easy-to-digest yet thorough summary and analysis of moral principles, known scientific facts, and reasonable conclusions related to the short and long-term effects of global pollution of our air and water, specifically our overabundance of atmospheric carbon dioxide.
But more than that, the papal encyclical is an eye-opening treatise on, as he writes, "protecting our common home," a moral imperative that human beings must protect the natural world from devastating consequences of their own actions and policies.
Every Borregan who is either concerned about climate change, or merely wishes to read in a single document a comprehensive and informative summary of the issues involved, should read and/or download the PDF document from the icon-link provided.
