Republicans and Democrats alike hope Pope Francis’ official document on combating climate change will help their respective policy aims when it is released on Thursday, though GOP lawmakers aren’t exactly hopeful.
The pope’s “encyclical” will frame fighting global warming as a moral imperative to shield the poor and the planet.
Democrats are largely welcoming the move, hoping it will help the cause, which has been mired in partisanship in the U.S. Some Republicans, however, accused the pope of meddling in science and politics, though most said he had the right to speak his mind.
“I’d strongly prefer the Vatican not be drawn into what I essentially see as a political debate. Nonetheless, I’m really eager to read his views on it,” Rep. Kevin Brady, a Texas Republican who is Catholic, told the Washington Examiner.
The encyclical is an official treatise given to the church’s 4,000 bishops that puts social issues into the context of traditional Catholic thought. The pope hopes it will generate momentum ahead of United Nations-hosted climate negotiations that begin in late November in Paris.
In the past, encyclicals have had significant influence in mobilizing the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics, noted Thomas Wenski, the archbishop of Miami. He noted the 1891 encyclical on labor in the heyday of the Industrial Revolution brought the church into the push for workers’ rights.
The climate encyclical already is causing a stir. Many on the Right see it as a political stance.
“I think the closer the Vatican sticks to issues focused on the church and religion, the more credible they are,” said Sen. Dan Sullivan, an Alaska Republican who is Catholic.
The Left, however, sees addressing climate as a way to alleviate poverty by slowing effects that some scientists have linked to worsening droughts and floods and temperature shifts that affect food prices and crop yields.
“The pope’s not talking only about climate. The pope is talking about how do we live on a finite planet,” Dan Misleh, executive director with the Catholic Climate Covenant, told the Examiner. “Certainly he has a right and an obligation to speak out on things that are serious moral issues, and this is one of them.”
A version that the Vatican said was a draft leaked online Monday. It said human actions such as burning fossil fuels are driving climate change, as most scientists agree, and that the fuels should be phased out. The poor are disproportionately harmed by climate change, it said. It called on governments to take action, with rich countries shouldering most of the burden since they provide a bulk of the world’s historical emissions.
It’s not new for the church to speak out on the environment, Wenski added. Francis’ predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, was dubbed “the green pope,” and Pope John Paul II issued his “common declaration on environmental ethics” in 2002.
But Wenski noted the release of the climate encyclical is different because the church must manage the modern trappings of blogs, around-the-clock media coverage and gridlocked politics.
“I think we’re all trying to deal with it. It’s a new reality,” Wenski told the Examiner. “But I think the Holy See is trying to be very sophisticated through social media whether by Twitter or Internet. I think one of the things that can help counter the spin that these bloggers will put on it is by Thursday the document will be available.”
Republicans say poor people would suffer worldwide if government-led efforts to address global warming mirror what’s happening under the Obama administration. They contend that regulations being established to cut emissions are taking cheaper forms of energy such as coal offline, which would raise costs on low-income families.
“I hope it’s not going to be as bad as I think. I think on the whole that much of the effort to reduce global warming actually hurts the poor,” House Science, Space and Technology Committee Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas, told the Examiner.
Still, Republicans were careful not to criticize the pope for speaking out.
“I’m not going to tell the pope what he should or shouldn’t do. Whether it’s the pope or Rachel Maddow, I think they’re all entitled to their opinion,” Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., told the Examiner.
Other GOP lawmakers held out hope they would find something they like in the encyclical. Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., for example, said he hopes the encyclical makes some recognition that more prosperous economies have greater ability to address environmental pollution.
“There are things we can do to lower carbon impact, by the way, that could also enrich families. So maybe that’s the sweet spot he’s looking for,” Cassidy told reporters.
Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., said the pope’s message will have reach beyond the U.S., where climate change is a polarized issue. He noted that devout Catholic nations in Latin America and elsewhere in the developing world will take the encyclical seriously.
“We’re talking about a worldwide reaction to his speech, not just the United States of America,” he told reporters. “And that’s why I said in the third world, in the developing countries, it’s going to be huge. And that’s where a lot of the destruction is occurring right now.”
Democrats hope, too, that the pope’s message will resonate with some of their GOP colleagues. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., said she thinks Republicans will heed a message of moral obligation to preserve the planet, similar to how Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said he views a need to address human-caused emissions that he says drives climate change.
“I think there are a lot of conservatives who do care about the environment and stewardship, so I think you’ll find some agreement,” said Cantwell, a Catholic who is the top Democrat on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
