Almost Forgot

OK, looking at the e-mail, sifting out the hate mail that the filter didn't, there is this link to an article in the National Catholic Reporter about the unembargoed encyclical on the environment, the one someone in the Vatican leaked so the American etc. right-wing media could lie about it and vilify Pope Francis as he endangers extraction industry profits over the little matter of saving the planet.

This passage in the article jumped out at me.

As predicted, the issue may be new, but the theology is very traditional. The quotes from Saint Pope John Paul II remind us that there was more to John Paul than what his neo-conservative “interpreters” in the U.S. chose to highlight. Pope Francis quotes from his encyclical Centesimus Annus, writing, “Every effort to protect and improve our world entails profound changes in ‘lifestyles, models of production and consumption, and the established structures of power which today govern societies.’” Likewise he quotes Pope Benedict XVI, who so far from the caricature of a reactionary, called for “eliminating the structural causes of the dysfunctions of the world economy and correcting models of growth which have proved incapable of ensuring respect for the environment.”

Which reminded me that I forgot to identify the radical who said what i posted yesterday on the topic of limits of personal property,  the overriding common interest that limits the right to property by individuals and their legal entities.  It came from the official, Catechism of the Catholic Church, issued under those two arch-conservative popes, sounding on economic justice issues like people so far left that they'd never be heard on our freest press in the history of the world or even on many leftish blogs written by Ivy League economists.   And it's not the only place in the Catechism that not only sounds but, if put into practice would be ultra-far left, as, in fact, the foundation of all Christian theology,  the Gospels, and The Law frequently are, as well.  I could have quoted many other documents from many churches, going back centuries, updating the language, and what those said could be mistaken for radical advocacy for economic justice, more so than they do to those who are presented, blind, with language from the Bill of Rights.

The NCR article points out that Pope Francis goes outside of Catholic tradition to make his argument,

Interestingly, having cited his predecessors, Pope Francis gives even more attention to the writings of the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, who wrote, “For human beings… to destroy the biological diversity of God’s creation; for human beings to degrade the integrity of the earth by causing changes in its climate, by stripping the earth of its natural forests or destroying its wetlands; for human beings to contaminate the earth’s waters, its land, its air, and its life – these are sins.” And, he cites the Patriarch on the call “to accept the world as a sacrament of communion, as a way of sharing with God and our neighbours on a global scale. It is our humble conviction that the divine and the human meet in the slightest detail in the seamless garment of God's creation, in the last speck of dust of our planet.” I do not recall any previous papal document devoting such attention to a Christian leader who is not a Roman Catholic in an official document such as this. I think it is important to remember on all issues that Francis is always thinking in terms of ecumenical relations, that his commitment to restoring full communion within the Body of Christ is at the top of his list of commitments. Noteworthy, too, are the frequent quotes from episcopal conferences.

Now, that's a trend that we should all hope continues and expands.  Many, probably most,  religions in the Jewish, Protestant, Islamic mainstream have documents that make similar points, many with their own useful arguments and supporting citations.  If religious leaders got together and really put pressure on governments and corporations on this issue they might just save the planet and the human, as well as most other species.  It's a lot more important than the next focus of the webloid-blogloid 2-week hate.

I am going to wait to comment further until I get to read the encyclical.  Like other theological documents I've been reading the past few years, it should be well reasoned and documented.   High-end theology is generally far better sourced and far better reasoned than most of the junk the self appointed "rational community" churns out.   It is certainly better reasoned that a lot of the "science" that gets you on NPR and the other so-considered elite vehicles of our freest of all free presses.