(ReclaimingAmerica.net) – After recently calling American Catholics too conservative and resistant to change, Pope Francis has made new controversial comments, this time urging nations worldwide to “end the era of fossil fuels.”
The pope fired his latest volley in his war on fossil fuels in a message he issued for the Feast of Creation, celebrated on September 1.
“[World leaders must] listen to science and institute a rapid and equitable transition to end the era of fossil fuel,” declared the head of the Roman Catholic Church, as cited by Breitbart News.
“[It is absurd to permit the continued exploration and expansion of fossil fuel infrastructures. Let us raise our voices to halt this injustice towards the poor and towards our children, who will bear the worst effects of climate change,” Francis elaborated.
He argued that global temperatures were climbing higher and higher, accompanied by disastrous droughts because of the unrestricted use of fossil fuels and the obliterating of forests.
The pope called such actions the result of “consumerist greed, fueled by selfish hearts.”
“Predatory industries are depleting and polluting our freshwater sources through extreme practices such as fracking for oil and gas extraction, unchecked mega-mining projects, and intensive animal farming,” the pontiff said.
Francis also argued that wealthy countries had to pay off an “ecological debt” to the poorer parts of the world.
He urged repentance for the prosperous nation’s “ecological sins” and their “harm[ing of] the world of nature and our fellow men and women.”
“Let us heed our call to stand with the victims of environmental and climate injustice, and to put an end to the senseless war against creation,” the pope stated.
In his message on Wednesday, the head of the Roman Catholic Church said he would release a second letter on climate change and the environment on October 4.
“What Francis does not note in his message is the fact that cheap, abundant fossil fuels are a hugely important factor in economic development and one of the key reasons there are prosperous nations in the first place,” Breitbart News comments in its report.
It adds the pope should use the four weeks before his next letter to repent for waging war on the “lifeline to economic development for the poor.”
