Pope Gore I

The Catholic Church has a message for you. It wants you to know that just because it sounds completely tone deaf at best on numerous issues that require a shred of thought, it doesn't mean it fucks up every issue. Sure it bungles things like AIDS in Africa, Africa, gays, evolution, science in general, health care, not raping kids, or ever using its clout to push for things that Jesus actually said and fought for, but that doesn't mean it can't recognize the planet getting destroyed is bad.

Sure, the church only recently came around on that whole "apologizing to Galileo for that heresy trial for saying the earth revolved around the sun" thing and isn't really going to get around to apologizing to Darwin for another century or so, but Jesus didn't say anything that could be construed as meaning that global warming doesn't exist, so they're cool with it for now.

Pope Benedict XVI denounced the failure of world leaders to agree to a new climate change treaty in Copenhagen last month, saying Monday that world peace depends on safeguarding God's creation.
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Benedict has been dubbed the ''green pope'' for his increasingly vocal concern about the need to protect the environment. Under his watch, the Vatican has installed photovoltaic cells on its main auditorium to convert sunlight into electricity and has joined a reforestation project aimed at offsetting its CO2 emissions.

For the pontiff, it's a moral issue: Church teaching holds that man must respect creation because it's destined for the benefit of humanity's future.

So, good for them and us, I guess. Of course it would be nice if the Vatican were to spend as much time and money on pushing for climate change action as it does fighting against the global gay conspiracy, but I won't hold my breath. I mean sure it's important to respect what God gave us, but you don't really want to put as much effort into that as you do to following the line about gays in Leviticus that follows rules on keeping Kosher. But I guess we need to take what we can get.

The Pope also blasted the "self-centered and materialistic way of thinking" that he said not only caused the financial crisis, but is contributing to the climate crisis. It's unclear if anyone pointed out that he was also claiming to be the one infallible conduit to God on earth and decked to the nines in Prada when he said that.

The Catholic Church just wants you to know that while they might not have officially gotten most science right at the time of its discovery, perhaps even accidentally burning, executing, torturing, and putting on trial many of the men whose basic scientific and mathematical ideas form the basis of our society, but they have gotten on board with this one. It had to happen eventually. Let's politely clap for them.