Pope Francis, Health Care, And Sustainable Development Goals

 If we recall the meetings that the pope had before Laudato Si was inflicted upon us, we will recall that he is all on board with the UN's Sustainable Development goals.  The pope lends a facade of moral credibility to these Masonic goals.  With President Trump gone, the progressives - and that includes the pope - have a more clear path towards the implementation of these goals.  All this and more was just discussed on this evening's Anchor Team broadcast by the Lepanto Institute.

Vatican Progressives' Two-Pronged Attack On The Faith

From within the Vatican - and it probably originates all the way from the pope - there seems to be a duo-faceted attack on the faith.  On the one hand, we see the pope shilling for population control vis-a-vis "sustainable developement.

Let's be clear.  That is what he is in fact doing.  Through various Vatican meetings (many of them quite recent) he has lobbied for the acceptance of the "Sustainable Development Goals" as promulgated by the United Nations.  I wrote last week about that meeting of mayors that he hosted as did my colleague at Les Femmes.  In that meeting he constantly harped on "sustainable development" while praising the pro-abortion mayors as "consciences of humanity".  I point out now that Laudato Si is chock full of references to "sustainable development".

Michael Hichborn at Lepanto Institute released a piece to ask "Why Is The Vatican Pushing Communist Goals".  Writing in advance of yet another meeting in November that is designed to explore ways to brainwash our children into being "sustainable development" lemmings, he shows the striking parallels between the UN's goals, Agenda 21 and the Communist Manifesto.  I shudder to think how they will work all this into the Ordinary Synod on the Family (that is, sin-nod 2) next October.  But for good measure, the president of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, Bishop Sanchez (that's right!  Him!) took a preemptive pot-shot at those of us who point out the evils of the United Nations (or, Useless Nicompoops).  For the record, I'm a big critic of the UN and yet I don't make my living from oil, as if that were a bad thing.  I mention it just to show the banality of Sanchez's "damage control".

So much for the "population control" and "sustainability" front.  Now let's look at the direct attack on the family and sexual morality.  We saw a major push to undermine Church tradition in last October's sin-nod.  You might recall that when that closed the pope gave a talk in which he said that we had a "year to mature" in anticipation for "sin-nod 2".  I wrote a bit on the "shadow council" that took place at the Vatican about six weeks ago.  Today ChurchMilitant.tv reported and commented on additional details of that meeting.  They are correct in that what came from the "shadow council" truly is heresy of darkness.  As you read that, it seems like a throwback to gobblygoop from the 1960s all over again.  Since none of these participants have been ousted from any positions, we must conclude that their heresies are tolerated by the Vatican, if not embraced.

I suspect we'll see these two facets of the progressive attack on the Church in the upcoming sin-nod.   Keep those prayers and Rosaries coming!

Pope Francis Strikes Hands With Anti-Life Mayors Promoting Death In Guise of Climate Change Concerns

This past Tuesday the Vatican hosted about 150 mayors of cities throughout the world with the ostensible goal of "combating climate change".  Ten of those were US mayors, most being pro-abortion.  They included Bill De Blasio of New York.  Joining them was CA Governor Jerry "Moonbeam" Brown.  They met in a workshop entitled "Modern Slavery and Climate Change: The Commitment of the Cities".  Hosted by the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, the meeting was hosted by rabid population-control advocate Jeffrey Sachs.  I've written about both these before in recent months.

As Breitbart points out, Tuesday's seminar was immediately followed by another, in conjunction with the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network on Cities and the Sustainable Development Agenda entitled "Prosperity, People and Planet in the Cities".  Notice how that phrase "sustainable development" keeps popping up like kudzu?  Ladies and gentlemen, I believe we are being bombarded with that phrase deliberately so that we will be accustomed to it and not notice when the death-dealing underpinnings of "sustainable development" are fully implemented in our midst.

The pope addressed the attendees at the first meeting; Zenit has the full English text.  While it is indeed a rambling mess, we can see within it the insinuations of progressive poison.  I'm going to address a few of these points.  Again, there seems to be very little organization of thought here but there are some odd things that must be pointed out.

He ended one paragraph by claiming that "wars are an element of the imbalance of environment".  No.  James 4:1-5 has a bit to say of the origins of wars.  Mother Teresa of Calcutta had words of wisdom on the topic when, at the 1994 prayer breakfast, she uttered, "But I feel that the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a war against the child, a direct killing of the innocent child, murder by the mother herself. And if we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another?"  Recall that many, if not most, of the attendees of this workshop are actively facilitating this "destroyer of peace".

Further on down the pope said, "man is creator of lack of culture because he doesn't look after the environment."  The only way that can be accurate is if "environment" = God.  Culture becomes debased when man's disobedience to God becomes ingrained in the culture, as has happened to western civilization over these past few decades.  Hallmarks of this "lack of culture" have been:

• the removal of any mention of God in official public life (ending of prayer in schools, removal of crosses and Ten Commandment plaques from public buildings, etc)
• the legalization and even promotion of contraception and abortion by civil government
• the exaltation of sexual perversion and disdain for true families by the culture at large.

These have been both cause and effect of the degradation of culture.   The size of "carbon footprints" and other such nonsense have little, if anything, to do with the health of real culture.  Most, if not all, the city officials in attendance have fostered these detriments to real culture.  The pope would have done well to address these.  Instead, he made no mention of these and chose to utter politically-correct ramblings.  After the meeting de Blasio was interviewed and the transcript is on Zenit.  De Blasio is quoted as saying, "He is moving people on an extraordinary level. And we have few truly international leaders in any sense. What he is doing is creating an international voice of conscience," and "He is literally saying to us that we need to reset our assumptions and think more deeply and morally about our actions, because our current sense of practicality is digging our graves, and I think his voice is having a very big moral impact."

I'll be impressed with this "very big moral impact" when de Blasio and ilk do a 180-degree turn and stand for the unborn babies and true marriage in their respective localities.  Otherwise it will be made plain that one effect of this whole charade is to let pro-abortion pols be enabled in their "lack of culture" policies by misguided papal affirmation.

Cardinal Pell Makes Plain Why Laudato Si Should Not Be Taken As Teaching

Cardinal Pell is to be commended for reminding the world that the Church cannot pronounce infallibly on matters of empirical science, or economics for that matter, because Our Lord has not granted her any mandate to do so.  She may teach infallibly on matters of faith and morals - but that's it.  All other matters are left to prudential judgment, given the parameters of faith and morals.  The encyclical makes pretentious claims that the "science" and "economics" promoted therein are the will of God; again that's impossible for those fields are not within the Church's competence.  One immediate outcome will be the reduction of credibility that will be ascribed when the pope does speak on matters of faith and morals, for people might understandably think that if the pope can botch up matters of science and economics in an encyclical (and he has!), why should they believe him when he speaks on matters of faith and morals?  Yes, such thinking would be erroneous and cannot be condoned, but the mess that is Laudato Si renders it understandable.

No doubt Cardinal Pell sees the potential for such real damage that Laudato Si will wreak (see here and here).  It is filled with progressive screed that not only was inspired by the rantings of Sachs and Shnellnhuber, but perhaps are the prattling of the same.  You'll notice that in the first half of the thing.  Here is a collection of my posts on LS; in those posts is a link to the English translation of the document.

The Catholic World Report recently put out a piece that takes issue with the faulty economics that are peppered throughout Laudato Si.  In Laudato Si, the pope raises the same alarmist tocsins regarding the "scarcity" of resources.  Now here's a salient point that CWR raises: "If the pope and others are ringing alarm bells, at times they seem to underestimate the creative power of human intelligence and freedom in the face of extreme scarcity of resources."  Many, if not all, progressives seem to think of man as being a mere consumer.  They fail, or more aptly, refuse to recognize that human labor and ingenuity is probably the most valuable resource imaginable.  That is why they are constantly kvetching for "population control" along with the abortion, contraception and sterilization that they think is necessary to attain "sustainable development".  That is why the "Sachs and Schnellnhuber" cabal seek to bring in others of their mindset such as Noami Klein.

This week's Catholic Standard had as its theme "preparation for the Pope's visit".  One "suggested activity" was to read Laudato Si.  I agree that it should be read so that all might see for themselves that it is permeated with progressive venom.  It is not in keeping with the traditions of our Church and must be both refused and resisted.

Yet Another Vatican Conference Will Promote Climate-Change Junk Science And Population Control

From the Catholic News Agency, we read that this conference will occur next week, July 21-22.  Ostensibly its purpose is to demonstrate a linkage between "climate change" and slavery.  Well, I daresay other linkages are made even more manifest by this conference.  The title of the conference is one indicator.  "Modern Slavery and Climate Change: the Commitment of the Cities" is the title of the workshop in question that will be held during the conference entitled "Prosperity, People and Planet: Achieving Sustainable Development in Our Cities".  The conference is sponsored by (surprise!) the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.

Let's focus on the conference title for now.  What two words indicate the underlying agenda with all this?  Sustainable Development!  We've seen that lots of times over the past few months, have we not?  Back in April, this same Pontifical Academy of Sciences hosted another symposium to prepare for the disastrous Laudato Si; the report produced therein specifically called for "reaching a level and sustainable population".  Recall that just after the release of Laudato Si, the Apostolic Nuncio to the UN gave the Vatican's formal approval to "the verbatim inclusion of the sustainable development goals and targets" of the UN.  That means that the Vatican has given approval for the usage of abortion, contraception and sterilization to accomplish those ends.  Oh sure, there might be the statements here and there decrying abortion, but they are far outweighed by the more insidious promulgation of concepts such as "climate change" and "sustainable development".

We also must consider whom the pope is taking into his confidence.  We've seen him include in various deliberations and conferences notorious "population control" advocates such as Jeffrey Sachs, Hans Schnellnhuber and others.  I point out that Schnellnhuber was recently appointed by the pope to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.  Can anyone doubt that he had much to do with the putrid output of these symposiums and conferences?

I wrote a piece two months ago explaining how I see the "smoke of satan"entering the Church through a number of specific avenues; one of them is climate change, but they all seem to dovetail into each other.  We also see how the "climate change" hoax makes it easy for guilty parties to excuse their enabling of the gay agenda.

Almost two years ago I wrote of a pastor within the Archdiocese of Washington who publicly announced that he condoned homosexual conduct while counseling Catholics.  At that time I wondered aloud if he would be allowed to continue in his post, where he posed a danger to souls.  Lo and behold, this week's issue of the Catholic Standard indicates that he still holds his post.  Not only that, but the Standard is holding Father Daly and his parish up as examples.  Why?  Because they've "gone green"!  In Father's words, it's part of "a living faith".  So, never mind about the souls of the poor homosexuals who need the truth of Jesus Christ and His sacramental graces.  As long as the parish and pastor are "green" (and don't you just love his green cap?), who care about souls going to hell?

Remember - Laudato Si and the proceeds from these junk-summits do not stem from dogma.  They fall within the realm of "prudential judgment" at best.  Truth be told, the level of "prudence" isn't that high, as these things do reek of progressivism.  We are not required, as faithful Catholics, to give assent to them.  I'll leave you with two things: the first is an excellent article by John Zmirak.  The second is a link to some very relevant entertainment for a Friday evening.

Laudato Si And Climate Confusion

In today's Mic'd Up from Church Militant TV, Michael Voris interviews three guests to comment on the junk science that is the basis of Laudato Si.  Two of them are Lord Christopher Monckton and Michael Hichborn.  Pay close attention to all of them, but note most carefully the indignity that Monckton endured at the hands of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences because he doesn't swill the "climate change" kool-aid.  Here's the link.

By the way - look up some words and phrases in Laudato Si.  It's quite telling.

• Try "sustainable" (for "sustainable development).  I suggest just that one word for what you will see is an attempt to conceal the phrase by plopping other words: namely "sustainable and integral development", found in paragraph 13.  We also see "sustainable human development" in paragraph 18.  The simple phrase occurs by itself in paragraph 52.  Now in paragraph 61, we see that "the present world system ...is unsustainable".  See how the idea of a "new world order" is being insinuated?  There are synonyms, such as "sustainable progress" in paragraph 114.  The phrase by itself occurs again in paragraph 159.  We see it again in paragraph 167 as the Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit is lauded, and again in paragraph 169 as scientists such as Lord Monckton and others are mocked.  That word again is found in paragraphs 191 and 192; read those paragraphs.  So the phrase "sustainable development" is being repeated, and perhaps for a purpose.  Consider that in April the Pontifical Academy of Sciences hosted a "sustainable development" symposium (from which they tried to exclude Monckton).  From that meeting came a document that overtly called for population control.  See the quote in my linked article.  There's method to the madness, it seems.
• Let's look at "humanism".  I touched upon the atheistic underpinnings of that term a few days ago.  Just google "American Humanist Association" and look at the manifestos.  In this document, the word occurs in paragraphs 141 and 180.
• Try looking up "regulat".  I suggest that spelling so you can see the root word in both "noun" and "adjective" permutations.  Interesting?

The authors were not at all subtle about their shilling for one-world-government in Laudato Si.  In the video, suggestions are made that the pope was "duped".  I think that's unreasonable.  Should we really believe that the leader of the Church, who was a bishop in a major city, is really such an imbecilic dunce that he could be led by the nose like that?  I'm grateful that Monckton ended his portion of the interview as he did.

Cardinal Wuerl Swills Down Climate-Change Kool-Aid

The Catholic News Agency reports that a forum on economic growth and "environmental sustainability" took place in Rome two days ago, and Cardinal Wuerl was in attendance.  Isn't it interesting how this forum occurred just weeks after the Sachs/Moon debacle?  But I digress.

This gab-fest was sponsored by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.  If that name has a familiar ring to it, it's because that's the council to which Pope Francis named the flaming dissident Fr. Timothy Radcliffe as consulter.

While there seemed to be no overt mention of "population control" at this meeting as there was three weeks ago, the Cardinal did refer to "sustainable development" as a "sign of the times".  We do know that the concept of  "sustainable development" does segue into population control and governmental growth.

While the Cardinal did acknowledge the role of "business interests", we see other sorts of "business" coming onto the scene.  Also at that meeting were representatives of World Resources Institute and New Climate Economy.  Take a look at the page listing all of WRI's "experts and staff".  It goes on and on and on!  What kind of operating budget does this outfit have?  Can we see that whole industries are growing out of the "climate change" schtick?  It doesn't seem to be limited to Al Gore's "carbon offset" swindles.

I took a look at the list of donors for WRI, having a suspicion regarding the identity of one of them.  Sure enough!  There it is!  The Open Society Foundations - in other words, George Soros.  I knew his paw prints had to be all over this.  Joining him we also see the Rockefeller Brothers Fund - all enemies of Jesus Christ and His Church and shills for one-world government.

In light of all this dangerous tomfoolery in which our bishops and even the pope seem to be engaging, I'd suggest careful study of this post from One Peter Five.  Above all, pray and receive the Sacrament frequently.