[aldente]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('vision-master', 'D')on't forget 'The Black Pope' either....

[aldente]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-7dcMvI9fs##

Europe currently - I have the artist in the house

[dinopello]

Pope Francis invites Patti Smith to perform at Christmas for the Cardinals.

Jesus died for somebody's sins but not mine

I can see some similarities between them

[aldente]

Dinopello-

neither did anybody die for your "sins" (definition please) -

nor will be anybody dies for your misdoings (to not developing you own train of thought is a mis-deed -for all we know the ultimate misdeed).

There is a fellow back East (I will not reveal his name) that has been on a severe "Jesus trip" for 7 years - before he came down....

Send me a PM and I can help you out of your "Jesus - the saviour- misery"

[dinopello]

Pope To Go Big On Climate Change

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'F')ollowing a visit in March to Tacloban, the Philippine city devastated in 2012 by typhoon Haiyan, the pope will publish a rare encyclical on climate change and human ecology. Urging all Catholics to take action on moral and scientific grounds, the document will be sent to the world’s 5,000 Catholic bishops and 400,000 priests, who will distribute it to parishioners. A papal encyclical is rare. It is among the highest levels of a pope’s authority.

“The monopolising of lands, deforestation, the appropriation of water, inadequate agro-toxics are some of the evils that tear man from the land of his birth. Climate change, the loss of biodiversity and deforestation are already showing their devastating effects in the great cataclysms we witness,” he said.

However, Francis’s environmental radicalism is likely to attract resistance from Vatican conservatives and in rightwing church circles, particularly in the US – where Catholic climate sceptics also include John Boehner, Republican leader of the House of Representatives and Rick Santorum, the former Republican presidential candidate.

Francis will also be opposed by the powerful US evangelical movement, said Calvin Beisner, spokesman for the conservative Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation, which has declared the US environmental movement to be “un-biblical” and a false religion.

[Shaved Monkey]

Its interesting how this guy slipped through the conservative filtering process to become pope.

[Lore]

Anthony Watts of the denial website WUWT gives some convoluted reasoning for being upset with the Pope's decision to come out on climate change.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'A')s a Catholic myself, I’m disappointed in this stance, especially since it seems out of place with doctrines of the past where there Church denounced many issues of science through its history, only to later admit they erred, jumped to conclusions, and admitted such errors in judgment decades or centuries later.

For example, it only took the Catholic church 359 years to decide that Galileo was right after all, and that the Earth DOES in fact revolve around the Sun.

I plan to ignore the Pope and its science panel, as many are likely to do given their track record on getting science wrong in almost every case where science and religion have collided through history,

[dohboi]

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/ ... ate-change

Pope Francis plants a flag in the ground on climate change

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'M')ake no mistake about it, there is no longer any rationale for division between science and faith.

Over the past decades, scientists and persons of faith have learned to dance in a complementary manner, a “non-overlapping magisterium” as the saying sometimes goes. But as prior conflicts were found to be more molehill than mountain, leaders among the scientific and religious communities have explored collaborative ways to answer scientific questions and provide solutions to real-world problems that reflect a universal motivation to care for our fellow humans and honor our religious traditions...

A recent news splash was made of predictions of an encyclical soon to be given by Pope Francis, the spiritual leader of the Catholic Church with its 1.2 billion members. This encyclical is expected to further solidify the Catholic Church’s strong stance on climate change and its focus on the impact to people around the globe. As examples of this tradition, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops made early and public statements about the challenge of climate change. Among other statements, in 2011, Pope Benedict XVI strongly supported international climate change action. And now, Pope Francis continues that tradition. But this soon-to-be released encyclical should properly be viewed as a continuation of strong statements he has made since ascending to the papacy.

[Keith_McClary]

Germany's rabbit breeders livid over Pope's Catholics breeding like 'rabbits' remarks
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'G')ermany's rabbit breeders have reportedly taken offence to Pope Francis' statement in which he said Catholics need not breed like "rabbits" but should practice "responsible parenting" instead.

Erwin Leowsky, president of the central council of German rabbit breeders, said that only rabbits that lived in the wild are "sexually overactive" whereas those who have been domesticated have tamer reproductive habits, reported News.com.au.

Pope Francis made the above statement after returning from the Philippines, where he met former street children abandoned by parents who were unable to afford to take care of them. He however, stood firmly against artificial birth control methods by saying that life was "part of the sacrament of marriage."

Leowsky took a jibe at the pope by saying that he should allow Catholics to employ birth control methods rather than "resorting to misleading cliches about rabbits.

[Sixstrings]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Shaved Monkey', 'I')ts interesting how this guy slipped through the conservative filtering process to become pope.

[careinke]

Even a Deist like me, has got to love this Pope over his rabbit comment. Long live the Pope.

[Ayoob]

Best Pope ever. I don't believe in the bolt-throwing sky person thing, but I believe Pope Francis is a force of righteousness. He is digging the corruption out and exposing it to sunlight and oxygen, and causing it to decay.

Maybe he is the new Bringer of Light.

[Sixstrings]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('careinke', 'E')ven a Deist like me, has got to love this Pope over his rabbit comment. Long live the Pope.

[Cid_Yama]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'A')s we await the new encyclical being timed for release ahead of the UN climate talks in Paris this coming Autumn, Pope Francis displays incredible leadership qualities that give hope to many within and beyond the boundaries of the Roman Church.

Pope Francis is attracting the attention of the world press for his outspoken and critical rhetoric on two important but related subjects. The first is how humanity is contributing and responding to climate change and the second is the global financial system, which is also the underlying driver of environmental destruction. His message is clear, so clear in fact that he is ruffling feathers and making the words of so many politicians look rather empty. In the US, conservatives are confused. His discourse is proving to be dynamite. But why?

Firstly, the Pope is discussing an issue that most political leaders simply will not mention with any certainty. President Obama has broken the mould in this respect but he is still hamstrung by losing control of the House of Representatives and the Senate where Republicans hold a majority. In Britain, Prime Minister Cameron speaks a double game on issues like climate change, largely out of fear of upsetting the various lobby groups and financial backers to his party. The vested interests that make most of our western world leaders hesitant simply do not hinder Pope Francis. He speaks out and is heard.

I spoke to one British climate scientist who was asked to attend the Vatican to brief cardinals on the extreme climate impacts that are occurring right now in the Arctic with global ramifications. He said that almost unseen, the Pope himself entered the breakfast briefing and sat quietly at the back listening. I know myself from hearing this same briefing that once heard, it is not something that can be forgotten. It is too serious, with implications that will gravely affect our civilisation and be irreversible for millennia. So with that in mind, I cannot see any reason why the leader of the largest Christian Church in the world would not use every bit of the power vested in him to address the most serious of issues that we face.

Scott participated in numerous press briefings at the COP and his main subject was the risk of large-scale releases in the Arctic of the super potent greenhouse gas, methane. These threats are now known to be increasing, as the Arctic is warming at such a fast rate, the thawing seabed that traps billions of tonnes of highly pressurised frozen gas is starting to escape. Even a 1% release would dwarf the current concentration of atmospheric methane and cause a spike in global temperatures, significantly accelerating the heating of ice sheets, in turn leading to sea-level rise and a complete collapse of global agriculture. These threats are among many others but they set the scene of what climate change impacts look like if not tackled with the greatest urgency.

Whatever the Pope and his advisers have to say in the much awaited encyclical due out this summer, it will be significant and timely. Pope Francis’s stand on climate change makes him a leader above all others; a man of his time with a message that is resonating right through Christianity and far beyond.

News of the Holy Father’s encyclical has already created angst among many who prefer to profit at the expense of the natural world.

[dinopello]

Here he goes again...

Pope Francis: A Christian who does not protect creation ‘does not care about the work of God’

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'V')ATICAN CITY (RNS) If you are a Christian, protecting the environment is part of your identity, not an ideological option, Pope Francis said Monday (Feb. 9).

“A Christian who does not protect creation, who does not let it grow, is a Christian who does not care about the work of God; that work that was born from the love of God for us,” Francis continued. “And this is the first response to the first creation: protect creation, make it grow.”

[Subjectivist]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('dinopello', 'H')ere he goes again...

Pope Francis: A Christian who does not protect creation ‘does not care about the work of God’

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'V')ATICAN CITY (RNS) If you are a Christian, protecting the environment is part of your identity, not an ideological option, Pope Francis said Monday (Feb. 9).

“A Christian who does not protect creation, who does not let it grow, is a Christian who does not care about the work of God; that work that was born from the love of God for us,” Francis continued. “And this is the first response to the first creation: protect creation, make it grow.”

[Pops]

I'm like Monkey, how did this guy get the nod from God?

Everything he says (that I hear anyway) is something I can agree with and I don't remember that happening.

Will the church be like JC Penney that tried "Always Low Price" (and never a sale) for about 6 months then freaked out, fired the CEO and went back to the Handy-Dandy, Marker-Upper Marker-Downer Machine?

[Sixstrings]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Pops', 'E')verything he says (that I hear anyway) is something I can agree with and I don't remember that happening.

[Keith_McClary]

Free Range by Bill Whitehead

[Keith_McClary]

Pope Francis warns of destruction of world's ecosystem in leaked encyclical
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'P')ope Francis will this week call for changes in lifestyles and energy consumption to avert the “unprecedented destruction of the ecosystem” before the end of this century, according to a leaked draft of a papal encyclical. In a document released by an Italian magazine on Monday, the pontiff will warn that failure to act would have “grave consequences for all of us”.

Francis also called for a new global political authority tasked with “tackling … the reduction of pollution and the development of poor countries and regions”. His appeal echoed that of his predecessor, pope Benedict XVI, who in a 2009 encyclical proposed a kind of super-UN to deal with the world’s economic problems and injustices.

According to the lengthy draft, which was obtained and published by L’Espresso magazine, the Argentinean pope will align himself with the environmental movement and its objectives. While accepting that there may be some natural causes of global warming, the pope will also state that climate change is mostly a man-made problem.

“Humanity is called to take note of the need for changes in lifestyle and changes in methods of production and consumption to combat this warming, or at least the human causes that produce and accentuate it,” he wrote in the draft. “Numerous scientific studies indicate that the greater part of the global warming in recent decades is due to the great concentration of greenhouse gases … given off above all because of human activity.”

The pope will also single out those obstructing solutions. In an apparent reference to climate-change deniers, the draft states: “The attitudes that stand in the way of a solution, even among believers, range from negation of the problem, to indifference, to convenient resignation or blind faith in technical solutions.”