Proceedings of the 22nd International Academic Conference, Lisbon

“THE MOST DANGEROUS MAN ON THE PLANET\

MARK VAN DE LOGT

Abstract:

In his 2015 encyclical Laudato Si’: On Care For Our Common Home, Pope Francis I confronted environmental issues and clarified the Roman Catholic Church’s position on global warming. In the United States, Laudato Si’, rattled conservative Americans who had falsely assumed that the Roman Catholic Church shared the conservative philosophy on the environment, property, and the economy. Perhaps more forcefully than his predecessors, John Paul II and Benedict XVI, Francis criticized the “sanctity of the free market,” the worship of property, the obsession with consumerism, the self-centered individualism that is too callous to care about the poor and underprivileged in the world, and the dismissive attitude that the environment is something that can be turned into profit without consequences and with the blessing of Christian “doctrine.” Ironically, Laudato Si’ also reaffirmed many conservative principles such as the legitimacy of property, the right of sovereign nations to conduct their own policies, the sanctity of life (including that of the unborn), the concern with scientific experiments on human embryos, and that he hails the work of scientists, engineers, and businesses when they work for the betterment of humanity. Despite outcries by certain conservatives that Francis’s encyclical is virtually a call on Catholics to vote for the Democratic Party in the next election, neither side can claim the Catholic Church as its natural ally. Indeed, the Church has always sailed an independent course.

Keywords: American Politics, Pope Francis, Environment, Global Warming.

DOI: 10.20472/IAC.2016.022.062

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