The leaders of Mexico, Canada, and the United States commit to 50% renewable energy by 2025.
Month: June 2016
The Pope
As one of the most influential people in the world, the leader of some 1.2 billion Catholics, the Pope has exhibited humility among the poor; concern for the environment; and acceptance of gays and lesbians. In this most recent act, he asks for forgiveness from those who have been wronged by the Church. Some highlights below.
On civil rights and human dignity:
“I think that the Church not only should apologize … to a gay person whom it offended but it must also apologize to the poor as well, to the women who have been exploited, to children who have been exploited by (being forced to) work. It must apologize for having blessed so many weapons… We Christians have to apologize for so many things, not just for this (treatment of gays), but we must ask for forgiveness, not just apologize! Forgiveness!”
On the environment:
Rich countries are destroying poor ones, and the earth is getting warmer. “The warming caused by huge consumption on the part of some rich countries has repercussions on the poorest areas of the world, especially Africa, where a rise in temperature, together with drought, has proved devastating for farming.”
Technocratic domination leads to the destruction of nature and the exploitation of people, and “by itself the market cannot guarantee integral human development and social inclusion.”
Individuals must act. “An integral ecology is also made up of simple daily gestures which break with the logic of violence, exploitation and selfishness,” he writes. We should also consider taking public transit, car-pooling, planting trees, turning off the lights and recycling.
Christians have misinterpreted Scripture and “must forcefully reject the notion that our being created in God’s image and given dominion over the earth justifies absolute domination over other creatures.”
On equality and concern for the poor:
Just as the commandment “Thou shalt not kill” sets a clear limit in order to safeguard the value of human life, today we also have to say “thou shalt not” to an economy of exclusion and inequality. Such an economy kills. How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses two points? This is a case of exclusion. Can we continue to stand by when food is thrown away while people are starving? This is a case of inequality.
The culture of prosperity deadens us; we are thrilled if the market offers us something new to purchase. In the meantime, all those lives stunted for lack of opportunity seem a mere spectacle; they fail to move us.
In this context, we can understand Jesus’ command to his disciples: “You yourselves give them something to eat!” (Mk 6:37): it means working to eliminate the structural causes of poverty and to promote the integral development of the poor, as well as small daily acts of solidarity in meeting the real needs which we encounter.
The dignity of each human person and the pursuit of the common good are concerns which ought to shape all economic policies.
Supreme Court strikes down efforts to restrict women’s constitutional rights
Despite public opinion on abortion remaining essentially unchanged over the past 40 years, with the opinion that abortion should be illegal under any circumstances consistently being the minority view, that minority of mobilized constituents has been effectively chipping away at women’s legal rights. These effects have been particularly noticeable and reported on in the South — Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama — but in reality, this a nation-wide phenomenon. Some 300 restrictive acts, policies, and laws have been enacted around the country in the past five years alone. It has been troubling in and of itself for those who believe in a woman’s right to choose. And troubling, moreover, for anyone who believes in upholding our law and institutional processes, and anyone who believes in scientific reason.
Fortunately, this week the Supreme Court, in a consecutive and somewhat surprising sweep of liberal rulings, struck down abortion restrictions in Texas, a decision that explicitly reinforced constitutional law, and made clear that bogus medical scientific claims were illegitimate, and exposed as such. The decision is reverberating across other states, as well: “There is no good faith argument that Alabama’s law remains constitutional in light of the Supreme Court ruling,” Mr. Strange, Alabama’s Attorney General, said in a statement.
Utah conservative apologizes to L.G.B.T.Q.I. community
Spencer Cox, a conservative Utah politician, gave this moving speech about his change of heart. We are all human after all. And he reminds us that calling each other “communists”, “fascists” and “bigots” isn’t going to change hearts and minds, let alone policy.