Laudato Si Has Been Leaked

Reports state that L'Espresso has obtained a draft copy of the thing in the Italian language.  The Vatican "deplores" the leak, calling it a "heinous act".  That might be arguably true since it seems the entire document is itself a heinous act.

The English is not yet out (to the best of my knowledge) but here are some snippets.  Warning!  Some of these translations will have leftist leanings; of course, given what we know so far of this encyclical, these translations may well be accurate.  That doesn't mean they are factually correct, just accurate with regard to the text of the encyclical itself.  Here are some takes from National Journal; here's some from the Guardian and from the Independent.

As you read these things, it does seem that the pope has been hoodwinked into following the "man caused all this global warming and we will all die if we don't stop making carbon footprints right now!" hysteria.  At least I hope he's being hoodwinked and not deliberately colluding with the one-world-government progressives like Jeffrey Sachs.  At any rate, he has joined the progressive clamor for one-world government and population control.  Take a look at the second comment from the Independent site.  The commenter is calling on the church, in light of the Vatican's erroneous embrace of the junk science to "halt population growth" and even "reduce population"; as horrid as that sounds, it is a logical "next step" to the mental brain-rot that seems to underlie this encyclical.  As stated before, "population control" is explicitly called for by the Pontifical Academy for the Sciences.

We even see hints of earth-worship in this mess.  At the beginning, the thing says, "the earth is protesting for the wrong that we are doing to her, because of the irresponsible use and abuse of the goods that God has placed on her."  Time for some basic thoughts on what constitutes personhood.  The earth is a planet: an inanimate object.  Inanimate objects, not being persons, do not protest.  They are not sentient beings and they have neither voice nor rights.  Any inanimate object, in the singular, has the impersonal pronoun "it" assigned to it: not the personal pronouns "she" or "her".  Got that?  Sheesh!  One can wonder why he didn't go all the way and call the earth "gaia".

Elsewhere in the document the pope stated,  "in this encyclical, I especially propose to enter into discussion with everyone regarding our common home."  No he doesn't.  He means to use the weight of his holy office to cram a progressive agenda down our throats.  As for "discussion", see this post for treatment that the Vatican meted out to Lord Christopher Monckton and other scientists who oppose the "climate change" scam.  In that post, I voiced my opinion that the Holy Father, by throwing the weight of the papacy behind global warming, is prostituting the dignity and authority of the Chair of Peter.  I not only stand behind by statement, I reiterate it.

The Independent article erroneously claims that an encyclical is the "highest level of teaching document a pope can issue".  Not true.  It is not solemnly proclaimed dogma.  Mark Rhoads put out a nice summary of the differences; rather than reinvent the wheel I link to it now.  Not even the science that the pope seems to invoke is behind the wacky theory of global warming.  We are not bound in conscience to swallow that kool-aid in order to be a Catholic in good standing.  I for one won't.

Oh, by the way.  The leak of the encyclical was called a "heinous act".  Here's another one, with heinous acting to boot. It probably has the Vatican's "bimbo video" beat for cheesiness.  It's from an envirowhacko group in Brasil called Observatorio Do Clima.  As you watch this, bear in mind that they're serious and obviously think this tripe is the greatest thing since "life's bread".  If they think this waste of bandwidth is going to inspire anything but uproarious laughter, the delusion is worse than I imagined.  Here goes..