Pope Francis takes Marxist ‘climate change’ extremism to UN Climate Change Conference
In a virtual appearance before the 28th UN Climate Change Conference (COP28) this past weekend, Pope Francis called on the world to adopt his Marxist “climate change” agenda to ensure mankind finds “the sole path to a life of authentic [fulfillment.]”
Blaming the “greed” of the Western world for an environment “run amok,” Francis described the “destruction of the environment” as a “sin against God,” and he called on the world to take action (via Vatican News):
In a hard-hitting message, delivered on his behalf by Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, the Pope told the COP assembly that his presence serves to remind them that “the destruction of the environment is an offence against God, a sin that is not only personal but also structural, one that greatly endangers all human beings, especially the most vulnerable in our midst and threatens to unleash a conflict between generations.”
“To all of you,” he added, “I make this heartfelt appeal: Let us choose life! Let us choose the future! May we be attentive to the cry of the earth, may we hear the plea of the poor, may we be sensitive to the hopes of the young and the dreams of children! We have a grave responsibility: to ensure that they not be denied their future.”
“The drive to produce and possess has become an obsession, resulting in an inordinate greed that has made the environment the object of unbridled exploitation. The climate, run amok, is crying out to us to halt this illusion of omnipotence,” he stated. (Emphasis mine)
Pope Francis has become increasingly more active with his pro-Marxist/anti-free market approach to solving the so-called climate crisis. Speaking before the United Nations in October, Francis singled out the United States for its “irresponsible” Western lifestyle and excess carbon emissions (via TheHill.com):
Individual, household efforts are helping combat climate change, the pontiff said, but “we can state that a broad change in the irresponsible lifestyle connected with the Western model would have a significant long-term impact.”
Francis noted that per-capita, emissions in the U.S. are twice as high as China and seven times greater than poorer countries. In a speech to U.N. world leaders, Francis shamed and challenged them to slow climate change before it’s too late. (Emphasis mine)
Even before his UN Climate Change Conference appearance, Pope Francis has been a man with a strong Marxist bent, and he hasn’t been shy about making Marxism a key tenet of the Catholic faith over recent years.
In an appearance before a joint session of Congress in 2015, the pontiff laid out an extensive list of priorities near and dear to the hearts of socialists and communists around the world. Phyllis Bennis of the Marxist Institute for Policy Studies noted at the time how “Pope Francis’ address to Congress was almost certainly not what John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, and other congressional leaders had in mind when they invited the pope to speak” when he called on America “to protect the rights of immigrants and refugees, end the death penalty, preserve the planet from the ravages of climate change, and defend the poor and dispossessed.”
In June 2015, Francis issued a papal encyclical blaming human selfishness and capitalism for global warming. In that letter, the pope addressed humanity’s “lost moral compass” on the environment, the “exploitation of natural resources,” the “rapid environmental collapse,” our “failure to respect nature” and the greed behind it all. He also said that “money trumps morality” and that “capitalism is killing planet Earth.”
The encyclical was only the beginning. In November 2019, Francis declared human-caused global warming to be an “ecological sin” to be added to the Roman Catholic Church’s official teaching:
“We must introduce — we are thinking — into the Catechism of the Catholic Church the sin against ecology, the ecological sin against the common home, because it’s a duty.”
When asked for clarification, Francis said ecological sin would be defined as an “action or omission against God, against others, the community and the environment” and he called it “a sin against future generations . . . manifested in the acts and habits of pollution and destruction of the harmony of the environment.”
Blaming free market capitalism for “killing the planet” has been part of the Marxist playbook ever since the first Earth Day in 1970, so it’s tempting to dismiss the pontiff’s statements, but history shows that he has applied Marxism to other so-called crises. For example, in an October 2020 statement addressing COVID, Pope Francis launched a Marxist attack on the free market when he blamed capitalism and private property owners for failing to end the so-called pandemic:
“Aside from the differing ways that various countries responded to the crisis, their inability to work together became quite evident,” Francis wrote. “Anyone who thinks that the only lesson to be learned was the need to improve what we were already doing, or to refine existing systems and regulations, is denying reality.”
He cited the grave loss of millions of jobs as a result of the virus as evidence of the need for politicians to listen to popular movements, unions and marginalized groups and to craft more just social and economic policies.
“The fragility of world systems in the face of the pandemic has demonstrated that not everything can be resolved by market freedom,” he wrote. “It is imperative to have a proactive economic policy directed at ‘promoting an economy that favours productive diversity and business creativity’ and makes it possible for jobs to be created, and not cut.”
He denounced populist politics that seek to demonize and isolate and called for a “culture of encounter” that promotes dialogue, solidarity and a sincere effort at working for the common good.
As an outgrowth of that, Francis rejected the concept of an absolute right to property for individuals, stressing instead the “social purpose” and common good that must come from sharing the Earth’s resources. He repeated his criticism of the “perverse” global economic system, which he said consistently keeps the poor on the margins while enriching the few. (Emphasis mine)
Pope Francis has gone from global warming to COVID and back again, all in the name of Marxism, but he isn’t the first to do so. Democratic Socialists and their Far-Left brethren identified COVID as the perfect opportunity to launch the Green New Deal.
Pope Francis’ embrace of Marxism as the answer to global warming and COVID should concern Catholics in America, but non-Catholics should be equally concerned, especially when Nationalist Conservatives working to destroy conservative values use the same Marxist ideology.
Like Marx, Nationalist Conservatives believe in a powerful, centralized government. Like Marx, Nationalist Conservatives believe in a “collective” approach to economics where “government should [be able to] force you” to make only government-approved economic choices. Like Marx, Nationalist Conservatives believe that “the powerful upper class and their cosmopolitan priorities” are responsible for “economic inequality.”
Pope Francis took his Marxist climate policies to the UN Climate Change Conference (COP28) to reiterate his belief that capitalism and the free market need to be destroyed and that global warming is an “ecological sin.” If you have committed such a sin, a few Our Fathers and Hail Marys — along with a healthy dose of Marxism — should take care of everything.
David Leach is the owner of the Strident Conservative. He holds people of every political stripe accountable for their failure to uphold conservative values, and he promotes those values instead of political parties.
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