Cardinal Robert Prevost is now Pope Leo XIV. I am certain that many Catholic Americans stood with pride, pleasure, and patriotism when the first pope from the USA was elected on May 8, 2025, after elections in the papal conclave by the College of Cardinals.
I listened to his inaugural papal address. It was a theological devotional filled with optimism for world peace and Christian love - certainly doctrinally impartial relative to the Protestants of the world or anyone’s political ideology.
I have written extensively on his predecessor, Pope Francis, who unconventionally unlike all of his antecedents, abolished many traditional doctrinal practices. That pope effectively brought much more liberal dogma into what was previously a doctrinally conservative Catholic Church.
In my article entitled, “Pope Francis and the Church of Scientism,” I delve in Francis’ writings on climate change, including Laudato Si’ (2015) and Laudate Deum (2023). These papers outlined his belief in anthropogenic climate change via scientism, gained mainly from his positive view of consensus and the “expertocracy”. Pope Francis even encouraged Catholic priests to uphold those beliefs from the pulpit.
The bible has many decrees, edicts, and commandments for humans to follow, but in Genesis 1:28 it reads, “Then God blessed them, and God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it”. A Pulpit Commentary on this passage reads, “The commission thus received was to utilize for his (human) necessities the vast resources of the earth, by agricultural and mining operations, by geographical research, scientific discovery, and mechanical invention. And have dominion over the fish of the sea, etc. i.e. over the inhabitants of all the elements. The Divine intention with regard to his creation was thus minutely fulfilled by his investiture with supremacy over all the other works of the Divine hand".
None of those human activities are banned, yet they are all a cause of carbon dioxide emissions. Yet, human contributions of CO2 total a mere 3% of the 0.04% in the atmosphere or a total of 12 parts per million (PPM) out of the current 430 PPM. Nature releases 97% of all CO2.
So, I was hopeful that Pope Leo XIV would return the Vatican to a more traditional, spiritual, and pragmatic sacerdotal-monarchical office under a long-established episcopal system. However, during a seminar last November, the new Pope’s position on climate change appeared to reverberate those of his predecessor.
In a related Bloomberg article entitled “Pope Leo XIV Might Be the Climate Champion We Need”, opinion editor and columnist Mark Gongloff writes, “Francis’ environmental advocacy wasn’t just based on an abstract love of nature. He also recognized that the most vulnerable human beings in the world — including Catholics in Peru, the country of Pope Leo XIV’s dual citizenship — would suffer the most. A church dedicated to helping the poor and suffering can’t ignore the ravages of an overheating planet”.
As I have written many times, it is the impoverished and deprived who suffer the most at the hands of the climate change advocacy. They are the ones who are divested of modern energy and the amenities that contemporary energy brings.
I hope that this new Pope stays in his own lane, bringing spiritual guidance and salvation to Catholic parishioners, and perhaps review how to best handle the reported $2 billion of debt now lurking within the walls of Vatican City.
