Abstract: Conservative Catholic blogger (and disgraced former Bush operative) Deal Hudson questions the Pope on his most recent statements about the environment. He essentially says that concern for the environment would dilute the pro-life agenda. It shows just how mono-maniacal the Religious Catholic Right is. It demonstrates that advocacy for any other issue other than "anti-abortion" is somehow scandalous. Second, it shows a lack of true understanding that care for the environment flows from the "Seamless Garment of Life" so often discussed by Pope John Paul II. How can you show "concern for life" without a planet?
This Pope continues to amaze me, in positive ways. The more I read of his writings, the more proud I become of being both a Catholic and a Democrat. Pope Benedict XVI has been speaking clearly and forcefully on the subject of Climate Change recently. In a recent speech during the Church's Save Creation Day, he said:
"New generations will be entrusted with the future of the planet, which bears clear signs of a type of development that has not always protected nature's delicate equilibriums. Before it is too late one must make courageous choices that can recreate a strong alliance between mankind and the earth. What is needed is a decisive 'yes' to the protection of creation and a strong commitment to reverse the trend that risks leading to situations of irreversible degradation." (My emphasis)
This is not the first time the Pope (or any pope for that matter) has talked about the environment. (You can find a Vatican Radio report on the Pope's speeches on this topic on iTunes) In fact, Catholic Social Teaching has a very solid track record on the subject of "Stewardship", the proper and moral care of God's creation. It is in this context that statements the Religious Right, Roman Catholic Edition, reveals their true agenda.
Disgraced former Bush Advisor, Conservative Publisher and prominent right-wing blogger Deal Hudson, in a recent post on his blog says the following in reaction to the Pope's statements:
Let's hope the Vatican doesn't join the crusade against Global Warming. This would be used by the Catholic Left to provide justification for their lack of concern for life issues.
This lovely little non-sequitur is fascinating for a number of reasons. First, it shows just how mono-maniacal the Religious Catholic Right is. It demonstrates that advocacy for any other issue other than "anti-abortion" is somehow scandalous. Second, it shows a lack of true understanding that care for the environment flows from the "Seamless Garment of Life" so often discussed by Pope John Paul II. How can you show "concern for life" without a planet?
Third, and most revealing, it shows the Catholic Right is only concerned about regaining their political majority through the exploitation and narrowing of Catholic teachings. Pope John Paul II was equally clear and forceful in his writing on the "ecologic question", from one of the landmark documents in Catholic Social Teaching, "Centesimus Annus" (#37)
Equally worrying is the ecological question which accompanies the problem of consumerism and which is closely connected to it. In his desire to have and to enjoy rather than to be and to grow, man consumes the resources of the earth and his own life in an excessive and disordered way. At the root of the senseless destruction of the natural environment lies an anthropological error, which unfortunately is widespread in our day.
He continues, almost as if speaking of Hudson:
In all this, one notes first the poverty or narrowness of man's outlook, motivated as he is by a desire to possess things rather than to relate them to the truth, and lacking that disinterested, unselfish and aesthetic attitude that is born of wonder in the presence of being and of the beauty which enables one to see in visible things the message of the invisible God who created them. In this regard, humanity today must be conscious of its duties and obligations towards future generations.
What is truly stunning is Hudson's repudiation of all of the Church's teaching except for abortion. It is very clear that proper discernment dictates that we must make moral decisions, and as a result political ones, in proper context, and not on the basis of a single issue.