The Pope as Environmentalist
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The mutually-exclusive position of bemoaning wealth-creation but insisting upon more people on Mother Earth
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In Pope Francis’ Easter message, he bemoaned a world “torn apart by…….the iniquitous exploitation of natural resources!” He went on to hope that humanity becomes “responsible guardians of creation.” Presumably he was referring to the elimination of abortion, a very worthy and necessary goal. It would be nice, though, if the church would add birth-control to its definition of responsible guardians of creation but that’s a discussion for another day.
Perhaps the Vatican takes a green position in the hopes of increasing its fan base, and thus what it pulls into the collection plate. But in all likelihood, it is more the byproduct of a purist and idealist, if not naive, view of how humanity should conduct itself in this world.
Pope Francis deplores materialism…..unless it fills the collection basket
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The great irony, though, of the pope’s denunciation of the exploitation of natural resources, iniquitous or otherwise, is the seeming ignorance of the fact that wealth creation, which includes exploiting natural resources, is what fills the never-ending collection plates in churches. Without those evil capitalists obsessed with materialism, institutions in formal education, public broadcasting and organized religion, which natively distance themselves from the evils of money but can never stop asking for such, would cease to exist. And the church’s position that birth-control should not be used which would result in an explosion in population is inconsistent with the discouraging of wealth creation that occurs when natural resources are exploited, as one could argue God meant them to be.
Pope Francis has inherited many challenges that the church faces, much of which stem from a loss of spiritualism amongst its flock. But one area that the church could help re-connect itself with its members is realizing, accepting and admitting that wealth, while in and of itself not redemption, can address people’s basic needs and allow them to elevate themselves to be better pilgrims, which is what the church always calls for.
As this new pope is partial to calling for tolerance, he may want to consider the tolerance of those people and acts, despite their materialistic tinge, that allow us to meet basic needs and consequently think at a more spiritual level.
-I.M. Windee
