Scott Brinton

The people's pope, a man of science

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There’s a wonderful story about St. Francis of Assisi, the 13th-century champion of the poor, after whom the Roman Catholic Church’s current pope is named. St. Francis, it is said, would stop in his tracks if he spotted a worm squirming across a path, collect the creature in his hands and deposit it in a safe location.

Yes, he was that worried about God’s creation.

“Where the modern cynic sees something ‘bug-like’ in everything that exists,” noted the late-19th- and early-20th-century German philosopher Max Scheler, “St. Francis saw even in a bug the sacredness of life.”

It’s little wonder that St. Francis is the patron saint of ecologists worldwide. And it’s little wonder that the pope, who clearly identifies with St. Francis, cited his teachings so generously in his most recent papal encyclical, “On the Care for Our Common Home.”

Pope Francis, 78, born Jorge Mario Begoglio in Argentina, is something of a revolutionary, who, since his papacy began in 2013, has implored the world’s billion-plus Catholics to reject consumerism for a life grounded in spirituality –– and he has done so not only with his words, but also with his deeds.

Francis embraces the sick, the defenseless, the disenfranchised and the impoverished. On May 24, he also became the world’s most important environmental leader by publishing “On the Care,” although I’m sure he would humbly disagree with that assertion.

In the encyclical –– a long letter offering guidance to church leaders –– the pope accepts, with near absolute certainty, the scientific consensus that climate change is happening, and that humans are causing it by sending ever-higher levels of heat-trapping greenhouse gases –– namely carbon dioxide and methane –– into the atmosphere.

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