Guest essay by Eric Worrall

Pope Francis is launching a new website, apparently to mobilise opposition against US Bishops who have resisted his demands they support renewable energy and sustainable living.

Vatican Calls for a ‘Cultural Revolution’ to Fight Climate Change

Angely Mercado

Published 12 hours ago: February 26, 2022 at 9:47 am

The Vatican is once again trying to make climate action a key issue for Catholics, as it launches a program called the Laudato Si’ Action Platform, named after the Pope’s 2015 letter that framed protecting the environmental as a spiritual mandate. The new website calls on Catholics to eat less meat, take public transit and drive less, avoid single-use plastics and other wasteful habits, and take part in a “cultural revolution” to change how they interact with the natural environment and financial systems.

“Discerning a response to the ecological crisis is a profound act of care,” the website says. “The Laudato Si’ Goals guide our actions…. Their holistic approach acknowledges the planetary limits of all socio-economic systems and the human roots of the ecological crisis. They call for a spiritual and cultural revolution to realise integral ecology.”

Pope Francis, head of the Roman Catholic Church since 2013, has made environmental consciousness part of his mission for the church. (Many U.S. bishops, though, haven’t followed his lead. Some American conservatives have even called him a “fake Christian.”) This new platform contains an emotional plea for Catholics to embrace more sustainable lifestyles.

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Read more: https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2022/02/vatican-calls-for-a-cultural-revolution-to-fight-climate-change/

The website is available here.

There is something oddly amateurish about this new website, which leads me to wonder whether this is actually an official church effort.

The new website is a “.org” site. Not unusual for regular websites, which usually end with “.com”, “.org”, “.net” or nation specific domains, but official papal websites usually end with a “.va”.

In addition, someone profoundly ignorant of history or the English Language chose to describe Pope Francis’ efforts as promoting a “cultural revolution”. In English, the phrase “cultural revolution” has some very dark connotations. Anyone who has any knowledge of history has heard of the Chinese cultural revolution, a communist inflicted holocaust in which millions of people starved to death or were executed for the crime of wearing glasses and looking smart, or even a suspicion that they criticised or questioned anything Mao said or did.

I’m sure this is not what Pope Francis wants, right?