September 25, 2015 Post 4

            Reading Pope Francis’ Encyclical Letter this week, along with hearing Bernie Evans speak proved to be eye opening and genuinely pleasing experiences. However, it stirred up a conflict in my perceptions of the Catholic faith, causing me much distress. Let me elaborate here, while at the same time explaining the problem I see in regards to climate change.

            Being raised Catholic, I found myself to be unknowingly instilled with values that are fairly consistent with the current Pope’s. The encyclical letter highlighted key concepts present in the Catholic faith while discussing climate change. Pope Francis emphasized that all creatures are creatures of God and must be respected as such. The same goes for the planet. Each thing has value, even if that value is not anthropocentric or centered around humans. He also has a particular affinity for the poor and focuses on the idea that everyone has a right to a good life. These among other values mentioned in the letter seem commonsensical or at least logical to be held in the church.

As I grew up in a community filled with other “Catholics” I developed a negative connotation with followers of the religion. I carried a perception that they were a group of people who were discriminatory (harsh views on homosexuality), were not open to alternative viewpoints, and were ignorant of the current environmental problem. Now after reading the encyclical, I am left with hope that this is not the majority, but I do know that these people exist. Essentially, they hold views that I see as consistent with the Republican party in the United States, so I grew up having a strong association with Catholics and Republicans. In fact, last class period it was brought up that all of these Catholic Republican senators refused to attend the Pope’s address to congress. They did not attend because his views were too different from the church’s leader, especially on the climate change issue.

            This reaffirmation of my perception still troubled me. I cannot help but question why there is an association between the two. If others sat down to read the encyclical letter or another piece of deeper writing by the Pope, perhaps they would reassess the values they hold and compare them to those of the church. I feel that this could begin to cause some political change and although it's a long shot, maybe, just maybe we wouldn’t have someone in the running for president of the United States who doesn’t believe that anthropogenic climate change exists.