Kaine said he was “very, very excited” by “Laudato Si,” Francis’s encyclical on the environment generally and on the need to address climate change in particular — something Kaine places in “an area of fundamental truth.”
“I’m sure he’s not going to opine on whether a carbon tax is better than a cap-and-trade mechanism,” he said. “That doesn’t need to be where he goes — but to say, ‘You know, you guys and everybody in power these days, you’ve got the next generation’s future in your hands, and you don’t want to have to face that question later in life: With the science what it was, and with you having the opportunity to do something about it, why did you choose not to?'”
But Rounds — whose given name is Marion, in honor of the Holy Mother — sees a potential conflict between Francis’s focus on climate change and his oft-repeated calls for greater attention to the poor.
“I appreciate his message,” Rounds said. “Now it’s up to us to try to look at what we think are the most sustainable ways in which we could find the right tactics, so to speak. … That’s where we’re having our disagreement. Does it mean you shut down [coal power plants] and increase the price of electricity for those who are poor? Do you raise the cost of electricity across the United States? Or do you find new technologies or new alternatives?
“In my part of the country,” he continued, “it gets down to 30 degrees below zero. … I’ve got folks who live on Indian reservations that are below the poverty level. They worry about just keeping their homes heated, let alone what the cost of it is or whether it is coming from a coal-fired plant or if it’s coming from windmills. We have both, but if we rely strictly on the renewable sources available to us today those folks would never be able to afford the cost of that power.”
Today one of the issues we expect the Pope to address is climate change. He isn’t expected to go all political on the US lawmakers. Instead he will address the issue more globally. Plugging the ears on all the dog whistle words from both the right and left, looking at the reality, both sides are so easy to see and they are as opposite as day and night.
Kaine is a senator of a fairly progressive east-coast state with a 4-season, zone 7 climate. Rounds is a senator of a mid-western state that has winter temperatures dip down to below -30°. Now that is cold! South Dakota also gets hot as blue blazes in the summer. Couple those temperatures with an indigenous population that lives well below the poverty level and the absurdity of raising heating costs becomes apparent.
Perhaps it will take divine intervention to find the balance between cost-effectiveness and environmental responsibility. No one ever said being a good steward of the earth was going to be easy.
Feel free to discuss any of the topics addressed by the Pope under this thread.
I am a strong believer in separation of church and state. I should be howling that the Pope addressed Congress. This move is clearly tearing down the wall of separation.
Somehow I am not bothered. I have been swept up his St. Francis’ decency.
It’s difficult to get upset over someone who reminds us of the Golden Rule. “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
@Moon-howler
How is having the Pope address Congress, SCOTUS, and the Vice President, tearing down any “wall?”
All he did was address Christian principles as the Leader of a major religion. Presidents have had the Dalai Lama at the White House….how is this not the same?
He didn’t even make a political speech.
I didn’t feel that it did tear down walls. Other people could have done it and it would have.
He is the ‘Head of State” of a (tiny) theocratic nation, who addressed Congress. He has influence, but no constitutional power. How does this breach the (implied) separation of church and state? Now, if a priest ran for, and was elected to the mayorship of a major US city (with many times the population of Vatican City), would this violate “the wall”? If the King of Saudi Arabia were to address Congress, would this breach “the wall”?
I already said it didn’t bother me. I love this Pope. If Billy Graham showed up, I wouldn’t be as accepting.
How is the Pope influencing America? addressing Congress.
Do you like him, Steve?
@Moon-howler
On May 2, 1996, Billy Graham and his wife Ruth both received the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest honor Congress can bestow upon a civilian. The medals were awarded for, “outstanding and lasting contributions to morality, racial equality, family, philanthropy and religion.” It was not before a joint session of Congress but in the Capitol Rotunda and some 700 people attended. Reverend Francis X. Quinn, Mother Theresa of Calcutta and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew have also received the same medal. And the walls came tumbling down.
Sorry, I don’t care for Billy Graham. It’s simply an opinion.
I have family members who stopped going to church years ago because of the Church’s stand on migrant labor in the 1960s. Everyone seems to have their all-or-nothing issues, and that’s apparently nothing new.
It is heartening to see the love for the Pope that so many people have, and their willingness to look at the human priest and not expect 100% alignment on every issue. In a recent encyclical, the Pope stated ““Since everything is interrelated, concern for the protection of nature is also incompatible with the justification of abortion. How can we genuinely teach the importance of concern for other vulnerable beings, however troublesome or inconvenient they may be, if we fail to protect a human embryo, even when its presence is uncomfortable and creates difficulties?”
Nothing new from the Church, really, although Francis is emphasizing an interrelationship between protecting the planet and also protecting life. Maybe Francis’s presence will have opened a new era where people stop shouting at each other from opposite ends of some arbitrary fence, but begin to stop, listen, and gain some understanding.
I think most people would like to see the need for abortion cease to exist. I absolutely have no problem with any church’s teaching on abortion. I object to any church attempting to influence legislation.
One way to end abortion is to eliminate unwanted pregnancy. That’s where the ball is dropped on the interrelated issues.
I think it is wonderful how this man is embraced by Catholics and non-Catholics alike.
I am watching the first mass in Philadelphia. I recoil as I watch the sea of priests in the processional.
Is anyone else offended by this boys’ club? Ah, they are letting some woman sing.
I adore this Pope. I hope he busts up the monopoly on the God Channel.