During the United Nations Climate Change Conference last week, Pope Francis issued a letter in support of the Conference. Now some on the Left are claiming that Pope’s letter went so far as to warn people they will face eternal damnation should they fail to act on climate change.
They point to the second paragraph of the Pope’s letter which states:
Let us implore God’s gifts of wisdom and strength upon those charged with guiding the international community as they seek to meet this grave challenge with concrete decisions inspired by responsibility towards present and future generations. Time is running out; this occasion must not be wasted, lest we have to face God’s judgement for our failure to be faithful stewards of the world he has entrusted to our care.
There’s no doubt the Pope is a strong supporter of the climate change agenda. Ahead of the meeting, the Vatican sent a formal message to the conference comparing the combined assault of climate change and the covid-19 virus to the damage caused by a global conflict and said rich, developed countries owe and “ecological debt” to others. Francis also spoke to the BBC calling on countries to provide a “radical” response to the current climate effort and encouraged a new sense of “shared responsibility.”
But climate change is not settled science, let alone what policies should be pursued to address the supposed issue. Climate change is a matter of prudential judgement, as opposed to issues such as abortion which is an intrinsic evil.
People are not at risk of eternal damnation if they have different opinions on how to address matters of prudential judgement.