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This Insights eNewsletter was sent to subscribers on September 2, 2016.
eNewsletter Subject: On Catholicism and environmentalism
Pope Francis made news this week in two ways. First, he created a new dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development. He named Cardinal Peter Turkson as president, but—in a rare move—reserved oversight of migrants and refugees to himself.
Second, and far more controversially, on the occasion of the 2016 World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation (an observance which the Pope created last year), Francis suggested that “care for our common home” (that is, the environment) should be added to both the corporal and spiritual works of mercy.
I parse and raise some questions about the Pope's frequent emphasis on the environment here: Catholics and the environment: Too easily misunderstood?
As it turns out, both Phil Lawler and I believe trying to add care for the environment to the traditional list of corporal and spiritual works of mercy is a bad idea. We explain in these two pieces:
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