“Holy” Green

            Last month’s “Under the Green Thumb” (CFN, December 2009), spotlighted the questionable science and dark agenda behind today’s frenzy over alleged man-made global warming.^[1]
         We saw that this modern environmentalist movement is pro-abortion, pro-population control, and anti-human at its core; and that there are scientists by the thousands who challenge the entire concept that global warming is a man-made phenomenon; or that global warming is even happening! Meteorologist John Coleman calls the whole notion “the greatest scam in history”. ^[2] BBC climate correspondent Paul Hudson reported that many people would be surprised to learn “the warmest year recorded globally was not in 2008 or 2007, but in 1998.”^[3]
            We saw that Communists and radicals have found a safe refuge in the Green Movement; and that the hype of man-made global warming is being used as a pretext for government to impose more taxes, more fines, and more Soviet-style constrictive regulations on law-abiding people.
            We saw that research aiming to prove that global warming is a man-made problem is where the grant money is – and it’s big money -- and there is no grant money for scientists who work to disprove man-made global warming;
            We saw that the major news media, in most cases, ridicules scientists, or refuses to print the findings of those scientists, who present hard scientific evidence that global warming is not a man-made problem.
            Now, wouldn’t we like to think that a falsehood this explosive, that has the potential to do so much damage to families, to society, and to Catholicism itself, be a red-hot issue against which our Catholic churchmen would sound the alarm?
            Tragically, but not surprisingly in the post-conciliar era, this is not what we find.
            As is the case with trendy topics of the day, many of our modern Catholic churchmen have been led by the nose into this movement of environmentalism and anti-global warming hysteria.

            One of the major goals of the pagan, anti-life ecology movement was to get the Church and religious leaders committed to the cause of environmentalism. In this, the Green Movement has succeeded.
            We will look at a central event at Assisi in 1986 that was crucial to getting the Catholic Church involved.
            The first pan-religious event at Assisi was not Pope John Paul II’s prayer meeting for peace on October 27, 1986, but the 25th Anniversary of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) starting on September 26th, the previous month of the same year.
            At a speech delivered to a National Press Club (NPC) Luncheon in Washington, May 18, 1990, England’s Prince Philip of Edinburgh (husband of Queen Elizabeth), who was then President of the WWF, recounted the interfaith event.
            He explained that 1986 was the 25th anniversary of the founding of the WWF. Therefore, he said, “it was decided that Assisi would be the most appropriate place for the anniversary celebrations”, especially since St. Francis is now considered patron saint of ecology.
            Prince Philip continued,

            Now this is crucial. We see Prince Philip explaining that the WWF deemed it vital to involve the world’s religions with ecology. This was considered necessary for two reasons:
            1) For eco/environmental programs to be successful, it needed the religions of the world to invest it with some sort of “spiritual imperative”;
            2) Religious leaders can then influence their own people, especially in backward countries with high illiteracy, to the cause of ecology and environmentalism. Prince Philip explained, “In many parts of the world, the only person with influence is the local religious leader.”^[4]
            This is similar to Communist tactics wherein the Communists used religion as a vehicle to promote their own revolutionary principles, but couched in religious trappings (such as Liberation Theology, or the leftist rhetoric that comes from diocesan “Justice and Peace” groups).
            Likewise, the eco/ environmentalists are using the world’s religions as a means to promote their own pagan, environmentalist agenda.
            At the conclusion of WWF’s meeting at Assisi (Sept. 29, 1986), Prince Philip proclaimed the summit a success:

Four years later, at the 1990 NPC Luncheon, Prince Philip recounted the interfaith ritual that crowned the anniversary’s events:

This interfaith ritual places the one and true Catholic Faith on the same level as counterfeit systems, something the Catholic Church has always forbidden in its entire history, prior to the modernist updates of Vatican II. Such a pan-religious gathering is a kind of blasphemy, made unspeakably worse by the fact that it takes place in a Catholic Basilica with the blessing of the highest authorities of the Franciscan Order.

           In 1918, Belgium’s Cardinal Mercier wrote a pastoral letter entitled “The Lesson of Events” in which he said that World War I was a punishment for states and governments placing the one true Church of Jesus Christ on the same level as false creeds.
            Cardinal Mercier wrote, “In the name of the Gospel, and in the light of the Encyclicals of the last four Popes, Gregory XVI, Pius IX, Leo XIII, and Pius X, I do not hesitate to affirm that this indifference to religion which puts on the same level the religion of divine origin and the religions invented by men in order to include them in the same skepticism is the blasphemy which calls down chastisement on society far more than the sins of individuals and families.” ^[7]
           This applies even more forcefully when Catholic leaders place “on the same level the religion of divine origin and the religions invented by men”, as was the case in the World Wildlife Fund’s event. In the name of addressing nature’s punishment for man’s alleged abuse of the environment, our Church leaders provoke God’s punishment for the objective blasphemy of these interfaith events.
            Regarding the 1986 WWF interfaith extravaganza, Reuters provided a more detailed description of the pagan aberrations enacted within this Catholic basilica in 1985:

Though conserving nature seems a noble crusade, today’s environmentalist movement has a darker agenda, including the effort to expunge as many human beings from the planet as possible ... through the devices of population control (i.e. abortion, sterilization, euthanasia, disease, etc.). This was detailed in last month’s “Under the Green Thumb”. We also see it coming from the mouth of WWF’s Prince Philip.
Regarding “expunging as many human beings from the planet as possible”, Prince Philip makes no secret of the anti-human, anti-family tenets of ecology’s pagan creed. At the NPC luncheon, the Prince harnessed grand applause with the statement:

            The World Wildlife Fund itself is anti-human in its policies, and definitely subscribes to the “people are pollution” falsehood. One of WWF’s annual reports stated “increasing [human] population causes a drain on natural resources, which is geometric, not arithmetic... Science cannot be expected to supplant the vital processes of nature.”^[9]
            In 1989, WWF’s Prince Philip laid bare even further the warped philosophy of contemporary ecology. He said that were he to be reincarnated, he would wish to return as a “killer virus to lower human population levels.”^[10]            Tragically, these anti-life tenets did not prevent the WWF from receiving Rome’s ecumenical embrace. On April 10, 1990, this same Prince Philip – who said he wants to return as a killer virus to wipe out human population levels – met with Pope John Paul II at the Vatican. At the day’s end, Prince Philip announced to the press “From tomorrow, the WWF and the Catholic Church will cooperate together to safeguard nature.”^[11]
            The Catholic Church – the one and only true Church of Christ - is thus co-opted to serve an anti-human agenda.

            We will repeat some of what was noted last month on how global warming hysterics is leading to people accepting a Soviet-styled government control over the law-abiding citizen.
            Columnist Richard Littlejohn, writing in the London Daily Mail, said, “I doubt there is a single country on earth where the entire political class has so completely taken leave of its senses over alleged global warming. Here in Britain, it has been seized upon as an exciting new weapon with which to inflict more taxes, fines and regulations on us.”^[12]
            In the same vein, columnist Mark Steyn noted “It’s fascinating to observe how almost any old totalitarian racket becomes respectable once its cloaked in envrio-hooey. For example, restrictions on freedom of movement were previously the mark of the Soviet Union. But in Britain, they’re proposing limits on your right to take airline flights to other countries – all in the name of ‘environmental responsibility’; and fighting Climate Change – and everyone thinks it’s a great idea”.^[13]
            The true face of this monstrous climate change movement continues to reveal itself, particularly in the area of population control. In the December 8, 2009 edition of The Financial Post, a national newspaper in Canada, Diane Francis urged the whole world “to adopt China’s one-child policy” of contraception and forced abortion, in order to save the planet from alleged overpopulation. She called upon those meeting at the UN Climate summit in Copenhagen to propose such a plan.^[14]
            Not surprisingly, population control emerged as a key issue at Copenhagen itself. Lifesite headlined a December 11 report, “Copenhagen: China pushing Population Control as the Final Solution”. At the UN meeting, Chinese delegate Zhao Baige, vice-minister of National Population and Family Planning Commission of China (NPFPC) said, "Population and climate change are intertwined, but the population issue has remained a blind spot when countries discuss ways to mitigate climate change and slow down global warming. Dealing with climate change is not simply an issue of CO2 emission reduction but a comprehensive challenge involving political, economic, social, cultural and ecological issues, and the population concern fits right into the picture.^”^[15]
            It is clear from these quotes, and the many quotes we cited last month, that population control is a central tenet of environmentalism.
            Population control – abortion and contraception – is contrary to Divine Law, is mortal sin that sends souls to hell, and is against the natural law. Yet despite today’s ecology being hopelessly fastened to these wicked and anti-God tenets, our own US bishops, and bishops throughout the world, have jumped onto the ecology bandwagon. We have seen this “greening” of the Church expand since 1990, culminating in a new initiative by the American Catholic bishops launched last spring.

           In April 2009, the United States Conference of Bishops launched what they call the “Catholic Climate Covenant”, a further development of the Bishops' Catholic Coalition on Climate Change established in 2006.
            The purpose of these groups is to heighten awareness among Catholics to the alleged devastation to the earth caused by man-made global warming, and to urge Catholics to take the “St. Francis Pledge to Protect Creation and the Poor”.
            The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops thus follows the script written for them by the anti-life World Wildlife Fund. The WWF deemed it necessary to harness religious leaders in the cause of ecology – to be ambassadors of environmentalism - so that the religious leaders can then give environmentalism a “spiritual dimension”. This is exactly what we find with new “Catholic Climate Covenant” initiative.
            This “Catholic” group produced a short video posted on its website called “Who is Under Your Carbon Footprint?” The imagery the video invokes is as follows: if you use too much energy, drive too big a car, heat too big a house, you are creating a massive carbon footprint that will accelerate climate change, which will cause even more suffering and death among the poor.
            In the video soundtrack, a soft-spoken woman narrates in worried tone:

            The video adds the note of urgency: the longer we wait to reduce our carbon footprint, the more the poor will live in degradation, though the video never explains how.
            Then, of course, we are reminded the Catholic’s duty to the poor. The implication is clear: if we want to live according to our Catholic duty before God, we must change our lives, get smaller cars, use less hot water, get a smaller house, use less energy, adopt a “green” mindset, so that we don’t contribute to the greenhouse gases causes global warming, and makes life miserable for the poor.
            This is disgraceful coming from a so-called Catholic coalition, since the Catholic’s first duty is to tell the truth! But as we documented in last month’s “Under the Green Thumb”, there is no proven connection between human activity and so-called “greenhouse gasses” allegedly causing global warming. There is not even a true consensus among scientists that the earth is getting warmer.[17] And among those who believe the earth is getting warming, there is no true consensus that the warming is man-made, or that this slight warming is going to damage the earth in any way.
            But this doesn’t stop the Catholic Climate Covenant from making ridiculous and irresponsible claims about man’s supposed guilt regarding global warming.
            What’s worse, there are at least 12 different national Catholic organizations who have signed on to this Catholic Coalition on Climate Change, including;
            • The United States Council of Catholic Bishops;
            • National Religious Partnership for the Environment (an ecumenical group)
            • Catholic Charities USA
            • Catholic Relief Services
            • Catholic Health Association
            • The USCCB Department of Justice, Peace and Human Development
            The list goes on, 12 organizations in all.
            Along with all these, there are 18 other groups connected to the “Catholic Climate Covenant” including the National Federation of Priests’ Councils; Catholic Campus Ministry; and the National Association for Lay Ministry. The time and energy focused on climate change is a massive distraction from the Church’s true mission, which is primarily the salvation of souls, and the secondarily, the betterment of the Common Good.
            The Common Good includes civic friendship, peace, order, freedom, love of law, and a well-informed public opinion.^[18] Are the bishops contributing to a “well-informed public opinion” by promoting the lies of global warming hysteria? By doing so, the bishops become cooperators in a campaign of deceit, and this deceit is aimed at all age levels, even school children.

            In what has been called an “unprecedented initiative”, all of the Catholic schools in the United States – 19,000 schools – received so-called “educational” and promotional materials in English and Spanish on the second week of April this year, which asked students and parents to become part of the "Catholic Climate Covenant" program, thus further indoctrinating children into climate change hysterics.
            Parishes were also asked to consider addressing environmental themes in their liturgies prior to Earth Day.^[19] This is not only a liturgical abuse, but it ignores the anti-Christian principles on which Earth Day was founded. As The Pasedena Star News noted, Senator Gaylord Nelson, who spearheaded the first Earth Day set up Earth Day as an “anti-pollution, anti litter, population-control” campaign.^[20]            This latest climate change initiative of the US Bishops follows on the heels of a campaign launched by some 170 Catholic organizations in Europe last December 2008 that have joined together to fight man-made climate change. “Climate Change is a reality today affection the lives and livelihoods of millions in developing countries, exacerbating storms, droughts and natural disasters”, said an appeal signed by 92 bishop, archbishops and cardinals.[21]
            What waste of time! What a waste of resources! What a pitiful sight to see bishops of the Church, who should be beacons of wisdom and prudence, degenerate into trendy enablers of the groundless panic for man-made global warming.
            Remember last month we quoted, meteorologist John Coleman, founder of the Weather Channel: “ I am telling you global warming is a non-event, a manufactured crisis, a total scam.”.^[22]
            Remember the Japanese environmental physical chemist, Dr. Kiminori Ith who said: the notion of “man-made” global warming is the worst scientific scandal in history”. ^[23]
            Remember the 31,000 scientists who signed the “Petition Project” that states, “Human release of carbon dioxide and other ‘greenhouse gases’ will not cause a disruption of the earth’s climate.” .^[24]
            These global warming skeptics have been vindicated by the recent Climategate scandal. On November 19, news surfaced that hackers broak into the severs at the Climate Research Unit in Britain, and released more than 1000 emails in which “climate change” scientists speak of manipulating or suppressing data not favorable to their cause, and of disparaging climate-change skeptics.^[25]
         One notable series of emails from the hacked files describes how climate change scientists squeeze dissenting scientists from the peer review process. This is done, says London Telegrah’s James Delingpole, to create a scientific environment in which anyone who disagrees with anthropogenic [man-made] global warming can be written off as a crank, whose views do not have a scrap of authority. The scientist in the following email attempts to discredit and blacklist the Climate Research journal: “I think we have to stop considering Climate Research as a legitimate peer-reviewed journal. Perhaps we should encourage our colleagues in the climate research community to no longer submit to, or cite papers in, this journal. We would ask need to consider what we tell or request of our more reasonable colleagues who currently sit on the editorial board.”^[26]
            One of the leaked emails also came from Michael Mann, developer of the now-disgraced “hockey stick” theory of global warning, who attempts to discredit a legitimate global warming skeptic: “Those such as [Stephen] McIntyre who operate almost entire outside of this system are not to be trusted.” The Wall Street Journal explains that Mr. McIntyre is retired Canadian businessman “who fact-checks the findings and often publishes the mistakes he finds – including some in Mr. Mann’s work – on his website, Climateaudit.org. He holds the rare distinction of having forced Mr. Mann to publish a correction to one his more-famous papers.”^[27]
            Yet in the face of the colossal scientific fraud of anthropogenic global warming, the US Bishops continue their “Catholic Coalition on Climate Change”, shun their duty to preserve the Faith “whole and inviolate”[28] and ignore the real evils they should combat.
            For example, there is no Catholic coalition of the size and scope of the “Catholic Climate Covenant” set up by the Bishops to promote the truly urgent Message for Heaven given by Our Lady of Fatima that “man must cease offending God Who is already too much offended”, that Catholics must pray the Rosary each day, make the Five First Saturdays of Reparation; and that the Pope and bishops to make the consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary to avoid the “annihilations of various nations” our Lady warned would result from ignoring Her requests. When was the last time the US Bishops sent out educational and promotional materials to their 19,000 parochial schools – in English and in Spanish- to encourage school children to pledge themselves to the requests of Our Lady at Fatima?
            The bishops have established no national coalition of the size of the “Catholic Climate Covenant” to fight militantly against abortion, no national coalition of this size to oppose pro-abortion politicians, no national coalition of this size to combat today’s homosexual agenda.
            No! The true supernatural message of the Church regarding man’s duty to God -and the duty of Churchmen to create to a truly Catholic social order - is eclipsed by this trendy “obligation” to fight global warming, which has suddenly become a central requirement for Catholics. Our churchmen have been bamboozled by the anti-life forces of environmentalism to be the mouthpieces of the environmentalist agenda, rather than following first and foremost the mandate of Jesus Christ to “go forth and make disciples of all nations.” (Matt 28:19). In today’s context, this especially includes the imperative to regain back to the Church the millions of fallen-away Catholics who have left due to the ravages of the Vatican II revolution, and to work for the conversion of non-Catholics to the one true Church, outside of which there is no salvation.
            Likewise, the duty of bishops to ensure we have true Catholic dogma in our schools, universities and seminaries, true Catholic Mass in the parishes, and true leadership in fighting for the Social Kingship of Christ is eclipsed by our modern churchmen following blindly the latest left-wing trends. They buzz with activity for a counterfeit social cause. Yet by getting involved with this anti-global warming crusade, modern Catholic leaders and followers can pretend they are part of a great moral force for the benefit of mankind.
            We see what’s happened. The Catholic Church did not convert World Wildlife Fund to Catholicism. Rather, the pro-abortion World Wildlife Fund converted Catholic churchmen to environmentalism.
            Tragically, the “greening” of the Church is something we see not only from the world’s bishops, but from the highest echelons of the Vatican.

           Pope Benedict XVI has been proclaimed the “greenest Pope in history”.^[29]Various factors have contributed to this appellation.
            • In July the Vatican announced that Benedict’s World Day of Peace Message for 2010 will have an environmental theme: “If you want to cultivate peace, take care of creation”.^[30]
            • The National Catholic Reporter’s John Allen rejoiced that during a Vespers service on July 30, Pope Benedict “made a brief but unmistakable reference” to the pantheist Jesuit, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, who is “widely considered the patron saint of Catholic ecology.”^[31]
            • Benedict is praised for installing solar panels on his private home in Regensburg Germany, which is designed to feed power to the German electric grid.
            • In 2008, he had installed solar panels on top of the Vatican’s audience hall, a project that captured that year’s Euro Solar Prize”.
            • Also in 2008, the Vatican announced that it signed an agreement to become the first “carbon-neutral” state in Europe. A “Vatican climate forest” was created in Hungary’s Bükk National Park to allegedly offset the Vatican’s annual carbon dioxide emissions. John Allen writes, “A section of land large enough to absorb the amount of carbon the Vatican puts out in a year was planted with new trees.” Planktos/KlimFa, the international “eco-restoration” company that helped to set up the “Vatican climate forest”, also “pledged to work with the Vatican to calculate the carbon dioxide emissions of individual Catholic churches around the world, and to offer ways to turn their carbon footprints green.”^[32]
            One can only imagine what scientists John Coleman and Joseph D’Alea would have to say about the Vatican signing on to what they insist is a scientific fraud. As noted last month, Meteorologist Coleman said, “In the case of the global warming scam, I didn’t accept media accounts. Instead I read dozens of the scientific papers. I have talked with numerous scientists. I have studied. I have thought about it. I know I am correct when I assure you there is no run away climate change. The impact of humans on climate is not catastrophic. Our planet is not in peril. It is all a scam, the result of bad science.”^[33]
            Likewise, Joseph D’Alea, Director of Meteorology at The Weather Channel and former chief of the American Meteorological Society’s Committee on Weather Analysis and Forecast, said, “We are responsible for just 0.001 percent of this atmosphere. If the atmosphere was a 100-story building, our anthropogenic CO2 contribution today would be equivalent to the linoleum on the first floor.”^[34]
            Yet as John Allen reports,^[35] Pope Benedict’s Green stance is somewhat complex, in that the Pope wishes to promote yet another “new synthesis” – a kind of pro-life, theistic ecology that takes account of the natural law.^[36] In fact, Benedict sees the world’s interest in ecology as an opportunity to re-introduce certain aspects of the natural law. Perhaps this approach could be useful if one is dealing with men with open minds, but open-mindedness is something the academic liars of the Climate Change movement have yet to demonstrate.
            A full discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of Pope Benedict’s approach is beyond the scope of this article, and may be taken up some time in the future. For now we may briefly say this: Being foremost a man of the Council, Pope Benedict’s approach is that of Vatican II, in that it assumes too much good will on the part of those involved in a movement that is essentially anti-Christ. How can we assume good will when fraudulent science, strong-armed tactics, Soviet-style government-control policies and fierce abortion/population control proposals are the defining elements of today’s anti-global warming movement?
            Benedict’s approach allows the world to dictate the terms of the debate, and effectively treats today’s pagan ecology movement as an equal partner in dialogue, to whom the Catholic Church, acting as a “big sister”, can lovingly persuade to see the light. His approach fails to forcefully oppose the massive evil and deception of this movement, something, sad to say, many secular commentators do with far more zeal and clarity than does Pope Benedict.
            Further, Benedict’s Vatican, as with the US Bishops, follows the trends of the day, rather than being courageous trend-setters themselves, by demanding that global warming hysteria be stopped in its tracks, and that scientific claims of man-made global warming be scrupulously examined, with global warming “skeptics” granted full voice. Instead we see the Vatican mouthing many of the questionable aspects of alleged climate change.^[37]
            In short, Benedict’s attempt to “baptize” environmentalism is not an effective bulwark against today’s socialist ecology movement. By treating it as an equal partner in dialogue, rather than sounding a strong alarm against it, and by following questionable counsels that claim the Vatican’s “carbon footprint” can be propitiated by planting a forest 500 miles away in the depths of Hungary, Benedict actually gives legitimacy to an anti-life, anti-science, anti-Christ movement.
            How we wish Pope Benedict had a trusted, influential and common-sense advisor in the Vatican who would urge the Pope to establish competent groups of laymen to forcefully oppose this false science of man-made global warming; who would exhort him to battle militantly the anti-life forces connected with modern environmentalism; who would urge him to expose and combat the socialist and totalitarian goals of this latest manifestation of pagan ecology; and who would remind him that by making environmentalism a central issue, he is dancing to the tune of pro-abortion eco-groups such as the World Wildlife Fund, who enacted the strategy of getting religions involved with environmentalism so as to give the movement a “spiritual imperative”.
            This type of manful opposition would be the action of a Churchman who has truly read and understood the “signs of the times”.
            In the meantime we can still do our part, in whatever manner we can in to our walk in life, to oppose the false science of man-made global warming, to wage war in a uncompromising manner against the pro-abortion, anti-family, anti-life principles that are constitutive elements of modern environmentalism, and to expose and combat the socialist and totalitarian goals of this latest manifestation of pagan ecology.

Notes:

[1] “Under the Green Thumb: The Global Warming Fraud”, J. Vennari, Catholic Family News, December, 2009 (Reprint RP0219-1268 available from CFN for $2.50 post-paid. Mail orders only). This presentation, along with this month’s “Holy Green” was orginally given as a speech, but has been edited, reformatted and substantially enlarged for Catholic Family News. A recording of the original speech itself is available at www.oltyn.org/green.htm
[2] “Global Warming is a Total Scam”, John Coleman, http://earthpro.info/
[3] “What Happened to Global Warming”, Paul Hudson, BBC News, October 9, 2009. The article opens, “This headline may come as a bit of a surprise, so too might that fact that the warmest year recorded globally was not in 2008 or 2007, but in 1998. But it is true. For the last 11 years we have not observed any increase in global temperatures. And our climate models did not forecast it, even though man-made carbon dioxide, the gas thought to be responsible for warming our planet, has continued to rise.”
[4] “Conservationists Seek Help of World Religions”, Christian Science Monitor, Oct. 23, 1986.
[5] “Wildlife Fund Marks 25 Years with Ecumenical Service at Assisi”, Alan Baldwin, Reuters News Service, Sept. 29, 1986.
[6] Transcript of Prince Philip’s Address to National Press Club, Federal News Service, May 18, 1990.
[7] . Quote taken from The Kingship of Christ and Organized Naturalism, Fr. Denis Fahey (Regina Publications, June, 1943), p. 36. Footnoted as cited from Cardinal Mercier’s Pastoral Letter, 1918, The Lesson of Events. (Emphasis added)
[8] “Wildlife Fund Marks 25 Years with Ecumenical Service at Assisi,” Reuters, Sept. 29, 1986.
[9] Cited from Trashing the Planet, Dixy Lee Ray with Lou Guzzo, (Regnery, Washington, 1990) p. 169.
[10] Ibid. [emphasis added].
[11] “Pope and Prince Philip Join Forces to Save Nature,” Reuters, April 10, 1990.
[12] Red Hot Lies: How Global Warming Alarmists Use Threats, Fraud, and Deception to Keep You Misinformed, Chrisopher C. Horner, [Washington: Regnery, 2008], p. 209.
[13] “People Who Don’t Need People”, Mark Steyn, National Review Online’s The Corner, Sept. 7, 2007.
[14] “The Real Inconvenient Truth: The Whole World Needs to Adopt China’s One Child Policy”, Diane Francis, Financial Post, December 8, 2009.
[15] “Copenhagen: China Pushing Population Control as Final Solution”, Hilary White, Lifesite News, December 11, 2009.
[16] Homepage: www.catholicclimatecovenant.org
[17] See BBC report quoted earlier, “What Happened to Global Warming?” See also, “Hiding Evidence of Global Cooling”, The Washington Times, November 24, 2009.
[18] “The Function of Civil Authority”, Raphael Waters, Ph.D., Catholic Family News, December 2009.
[19] “New Climate Initiative Set to Launch”, Jerry Filteau, National Catholic Reporter, April 17, 2009..
[20] “For Earth Day, the Issues Change but the Spirit Remains”, Pasadena Star-News, April 21, 2009.
[21] “Catholic groups launch climate change efforts”, Jonathon Luxmore, National Catholic Reporter, Dec. 19, 2008.
[22] “Global Warming is a Total Scam”, John Coleman, http://earthpro.info/
[23] “The Climate Change Climate Change”, Kimberly A. Strassel, Wall Street Journal, June 26, 2009.
[24] See www.petitionproject.org
[25] See Rebecca’ Terrell’s article on page 5 of January 2009 CFN “Climate Change Science in the Hotseat”.
[26] “Climategate: the final nail in the coffin of 'Anthropogenic Global Warming'?”, James Delingpole, The [London] Telegraph, November 24, 2009
[27] “How to Forge a Consensus”, Wall Street Journal, November 26, 2009.
[28] As commanded by the Athanasian Creed.
[29] “Benedict’s Very Own Shade of Green, National Catholic Reporter, July 31, 2009).
[30] “Vatican: Environment Theme for World Peace Day 2010”, Catholic Information Service for Africa, July 31, 2009. See also, “Vatican stress on environment in Peace Day theme”, National Catholic Reporter, July 29, 2009. One can only grieve that Pope Benedict does not have as his “World Day of Peace” the more realistic theme: “If you want to cultivate peace, obey Our Lady of Fatima”. In fact, as of this writing, ( Dec. 17, 2009) Pope Benedict has yet to mention Our Lady of Fatima at all in any of his five annual “World Day of Peace” messages.
[31] “Benedict’s Very Own Shade of Green”.
[32] The Future Church: How Ten Trends are Revolutionizing the Catholic Church, John Allen, [New York: 2009, Doubleday], pp. 298-299.
[33] “Global Warming is a Total Scam”, John Coleman, http://earthpro.info/ [emphasis added]
[34] 31,000 Scientists Reject ‘Global Warming’ Agenda”, Bob Unruh, WorldNetDaily, May 19, 2008.(emphasis added).
[35] “Benedict’s Very Own Shade of Green”.
[36] Pope Benedict XVI has some decent things to say on this score in Section 51 of Caritas in Veritas, “The deterioration of nature is closely connected to the culture that shapes human coexistence: when ‘human ecology’ is respected within society, environmental ecology also benefits. ... In order to protect nature, it is not enough to intervene with economic incentives or deterrents; not even an apposite education is sufficient. The decisive issue is the overall moral tenor of society. If there is a lack of respect for the right to life and to a natural death, if human conception, gestation and birth are made artificial, if human embryos are sacrificed to research, the conscience of society ends up losing the concept of human ecology and, along with it, that of environmental ecology. It is contradictory to insist that future generations respect the natural environment when our educational systems and laws do not help them to respect themselves. The book of nature is one and indivisible: it takes in not only the environment but also life, sexuality, marriage, the family, social relations: in a word, integral human development. ... It would be wrong to uphold one set of duties while trampling on the other.” (emphasis added). However, many of us wish he would more vehemently expose the true face of today’s anti-life, socialist ecology movement, that he would remind Catholics in unambiguous language that contraception and abortion are mortal sins that send souls to hell, and that he would call up the forces of the Church worldwide to fight these evil movements in a militant manner, as we note at the end of this article.
[37] For example, the Vatican’s announcement about the theme for the Vatican’s Jan. 2010 World Day of Peace includes the statement: “The next message for the World Day of Peace, which will be celebrated on January 1, 2010, will be dedicated to the following theme: If you want to cultivate peace, take care of creation. The theme intends to solicit awareness of the close connection that exists in our globalized and interconnected world between safeguarding creation and cultivating the good of peace. That close and intimate connection, in fact, is increasingly placed in discussion by numerous problems regarding the natural environment of the human person, such as the use of resources, climate changes, the application and use of biotechnology, and demographic growth. If the human family does not know how to confront these challenges with a renewed sense of justice, social equity and international solidarity, it runs the risk of seeding violence among peoples and among present and future generations.” “Vatican: Environment Theme for World Peace Day 2010”, Catholic Information Service for Africa, July 31, 2009