Friday, March 29, AD 2024 9:23am

PopeWatch: Conclusion of Encyclical Translation

VATICAN-POPE-AUDIENCE

 

Continuing on with the translation by PopeWatch of the Green Encyclical.  Go here to read the first part,  here to read the second part, here to read the third part and here to read the fourth part.

199.Science cannot give a complete explanation of life.

200.Technical solutions to problems are of no use if Man has lost his way.

201.Dialogue among religious believers to solve the problems confronting Man.  (When such “dialogues” are conducted, they usually involve elites who share the dominant zeitgeist of the chattering classes of the West, and often have little in common with the average members of their religions.  That is why such “dialogues” have so little fruit and are exercises in futility, other than good media attention for those involved.)

202.Those sons of Adam and daughters of Eve will need to change pronto!

203.Pope condemns consumerism.  (PopeWatch has always been amused that clerics, whose physical needs are met by their flocks, so often condemn consumerism in their flocks.)

204.The Pope traces most of the ills of the world to what he calls consumerism.

205.Better angels of our nature.

206.A change in lifestyle and social pressure could bring about change.

207.Earth Charter calls for us to make a new start.

208.Disinterested concern for others is essential.

209.Better living through educational indoctrination.

210.Ditto.  (The Pope has an immense faith in education to change views on the environment.  A typical Jesuit view that is both true and false.  Some students will accept this, and others will deeply resent and reject what is being rammed down their throats.  Think of Voltaire who was educated by the Jesuits.)

211.Pope as environmental nag.  Wear a sweater and turn down the heat you no good!

212.Good environmental actions in our daily lives will restore our self-esteem.  (That could be true.  Most enviro nuts that PopeWatch has encountered have had a very high view of themselves.)

213.Ecological education every place.  (This reminds me of the emphasis that Communists placed on indoctrination, with generations bored stiff attending endless lectures on Marxist theory.)

214.Political parties and the Church must also engage in ecological education. (Endless lectures from Caesar and Christ on keeping the planet green.)

215.If people are taught to appreciate beauty they will embrace environmentalism.

216.Now the Pope begins to write about Christianity being used to make us all good little ecologists.

217.Pope rejects that good Christians may properly reject environmentalism.  (This is perhaps the most disturbing passage in a very disturbing Encyclical.)

218.A healthy relation with nature is only one facet of personal conversion.

219.Self improvement by individuals will not solve ecological problems that require collective solutions.

220.Back to the theme of conversion.

221.Finishing the theme of conversion.

222.Less is more.  The Pope clearly wants people to lead poorer material lives and richer spiritual lives.(However the world is neither a monastery nor a convent.)

223.More celebration of a simple non-consumerist life.  (The irony of this is that environmentalism tends to have its most staunch advocates among the most affluent sectors of society.  When one is rich and possesses too many worldly possessions, it is very easy to call on others to lead a life of simplicity and lack of possessions.)

224.Sobriety and humility are hallmarks of the new life that the Pope is calling the world to.

225.Pope calls for a less frantic life through dedication to ecology and the common good.

226.Live in the present without concern about what comes next.  Emulate Christ’s serene attentiveness.

227.Say grace before and after meals.

228.All men are brothers.

229.Being good and decent are worth it.

230.Quotes the Little Flower on the need for small daily kindnesses.

231.A civilization of love.

232.Community actions to protect the environment.

233.A mystical meaning to be found in everything.  (Near Pan-theism again.)

234.Seeing God in Nature.

235.Nature used in the Sacraments.

236.Praise of the Eucharist.

237.Go to Mass on Sundays!

238.God the Father created everything, God the Son united Heaven and Earth, and God the Holy Spirit permeates the Universe with love.

239.The Trinity has left its mark on all creation.

240.The relationship of the persons of the Trinity is mimicked in the relations within creation.

241.Mary grieves for the poor and all creatures laid waste by human power.

242.  Saint Joseph can inspire us to protect the world.

243.Beatific Vision.

244.”May our struggles and our concern for this planet never take away the joy of our hope.”

245.God does not abandon us.

246.Prayers.

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Don L
Don L
Thursday, June 25, AD 2015 5:34am

Isn’t “very solid consensus” a contradiction? It’s sort of like, a completely unanimous portion, or a moderately statured giant…

Thanks Don for deciphering the green stone hieroglyphics for us.

Cthemfly25
Cthemfly25
Thursday, June 25, AD 2015 6:56am

This effort had to be hard on soul and mind. I found persistent reading of this ranting missive to be a near occasion of sin. A minor quibble– you mention once again that the Pope comes close to pantheism. It is either pantheism or perhaps worse. My reading of his clearly afterthought references to the Trinity, Christ, the Blessed Mother and Holy Family is that the Pope attempts to elevate his screed about ecology and global warming to the level of the creedal beliefs of Catholicism. And to anyone referncing his call to “dialogue”, spare me as i find that simpering refernce to dialogue to be a fraud. Also, the Pope uses terms such as sacrament and virtue and other theolgical terms throughout the encyclical to elevate his ill formed views on the environment, politics and economics to a requirement for being part of the Body of Christ It presents at least pantheistic concepts, and if not pantheistic, it is arguably profanation. Ask yourself after having read this—is it Christ centered in its core message (as opposed to earth centered, ie, pantheistic,using Christ as a prop for the core message of this encyclical)? Does he lead people to the Truth, that is the person of Christ, not by some references to Christ in his discordant afterthoughts but again in the core message of his letter? Or does he demand absolute fealty to a sick and discredited Marxist ideology using the treasure of the Church to accuse groups of people such as those who participate in a free enterprise system as evil and demanding as a materialistic, not spiritual, condition of acceptable Church membership that you become materially impoverished to save the earth or be forced to do so by a world governing authority? And that’s the bottom line in my simple view of his 186 or so page missive.

Cthemfly25
Cthemfly25
Thursday, June 25, AD 2015 7:05am

And Donald, I wasn’t directing my comment at you….what you have done should be considered a work of mercy.

Dante alighieri
Admin
Thursday, June 25, AD 2015 7:14am

Does he lead people to the Truth, that is the person of Christ, not by some references to Christ in his discordant afterthoughts but again in the core message of his letter?

Bingo. That is the core problem with this encyclical. He does not integrate his theological and secular arguments, and so is providing us with a rather uneven picture.

Don L
Don L
Thursday, June 25, AD 2015 8:27am

Certainly, my comment here is purely academic (not a personal comparison in any manner) but In studying the muddled style here, I’m unfortunately reminded of C.S. Lewis’ comment that Satan uses a pint of poison in a lake of clear water.
Satan and his minions here on earth have plenty of fodder to distort Catholic teaching authority for his own end with this document.
Where is simple clarity? Even parables would do.
Regret is far more a burden than is prevention.

Aaron B.
Thursday, June 25, AD 2015 3:32pm

I guess I’d put it this way: if a pope intended to provide cover for pantheist heretics, totalitarian globalists, population reductionists, and their culture of death agenda; but wanted to include enough snippets of Catholic teaching to maintain deniability and get most Catholics to support it….how would that encyclical differ from this one?

Cthemfly25
Cthemfly25
Thursday, June 25, AD 2015 6:31pm

I want to add this link to provide context to what is taking place in the Vatican. It’s important reading for some so as to understand, for others, it’s a refresher. The backdrop to this encyclical needs to include a who’s who of the operators behind the scenes. It will also reveal the duplicitous methods by which ideology is advanced and an insight on the back room brawling preceding the synod.

http://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2015/06/a-response-from-the-pas

Tom D
Tom D
Friday, June 26, AD 2015 12:40am

217.Pope rejects that good Christians may properly reject environmentalism.

I’d agree with the Pope, provided that ‘environmentalism’ is understood to not include the pantheistic versions that are floating around, but rather the general need to conserve resources.


PZ wrote:

“That is the core problem with this encyclical. He does not integrate his theological and secular arguments, and so is providing us with a rather uneven picture.’

It’s not a problem, it’s a feature! This is the basis of the prudential use of our consciences to apply the encyclical. It is the ‘secular’ parts (especially the economic parts) that are the weakest, and so it is there that our secular experiences can be brought to bear to improve it.

Michael Dowd
Michael Dowd
Friday, June 26, AD 2015 4:22am

Thanks for all your excellent work Donald on dismembering this Frankenstein document.

Somewhere in his mysterious mind, Pope Francis concluded that God based religion has become irrelevant to Modern Man who has found a new religion of the here and now: himself and the environment. This new religion achieves goodness in two ways: caring for himself (exercise, organic food, pets, sex) and promoting care for the environment, i.e.,making sure everyone else lets him do what he wants. And now rather that actually confront the essential selfishness of it all our dear Pope has decided to lend his credibility to this new enviro religion which is really just a polished up version of godless materialism. For more on this please see:

Religion at the Service of Ecology
Francis’ Laudato Si and the Boff Connection
By John Vennari
http://www.cfnews.org/page88/files/11c42809f2c00aa4bf5352fd5dcf2cae-410.html

Donna Bergeron
Donna Bergeron
Friday, June 26, AD 2015 8:48am

Excellent comments, Mike. I look forward to reading your comments. Thanks for your work.

Ernest Martinson
Ernest Martinson
Saturday, June 27, AD 2015 5:49pm

Self improvement by individuals alone will not solve ecological problems. That is because ecological problems are related to economic problems. The economy is a subset of the ecology. We foolishly punish the economy with taxes on income and property. We punish the ecology by not obtaining all public revenue from green taxes. So individuals are punished for adding value to the earth but at the same time are encouraged to treat the earth as having no value. That is a prescription for destroying both ecology and the economy which it contains.

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