Outspoken Vatican official sees ‘slap in the face’ in Trump’s withdrawal from Paris pact
June 02, 2017
Bishop Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo, the chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, said that President Trump’s decision to pull out of the Paris climate accord is “a disaster for everyone.”
The outspoken Argentine bishop said that Trump’s action, coming shortly after a meeting with Pope Francis, was “a slap in the face for the Vatican.”
Bishop Sanchez Sorondo, who in the past has charged that scientists who question the evidence for global warming are working for powerful American oil companies, returned to that argument in his criticism of Trump. He said that the president’s decision is “an absurdity, motivated solely by the need to make money.”
Cardinal Reinhard Marx, speaking in his role as president of the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Community (COMECE), issued a more nuanced statement, but also indicated dismay over Trump’s action. “Although this decision comes as no surprise,” he said, “it is a major challenge for climate protection at the international level.”
Cardinal Marx said that the US withdrawal from the Paris accord “erodes the global trust achieved” in Paris, and confirms the fear of Pope Francis, expressed in Laudato Si’, that “the weakness of international politics lies in the fact that too many particular interests take precedence over the common good.”
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Further information:
- Vatican official says Trump leaving Paris deal would be ‘slap in the face’ (Crux)
- Cardinal Marx on the decision of the US President to withdraw from the Paris Climate agreement (COMECE)
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Posted by: mwean7331 -
Jun. 09, 2017 12:11 AM ET USA
It would be wonderful if these "know it all" prelates )pseudo scientists_would give as much attention to the troubled Church and lack of faith in the laity. Maybe they should ask God what He is doing changing the climate without asking the hierarchy first The Paris agreement was entered into without congressional approval It has no merit. If it is so crucial why can't Europe handle it without the USA
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Posted by: robertbovenzijr5369 -
Jun. 04, 2017 5:01 AM ET USA
Cardinal Marx is right! The LOVE OF MONEY, instead of love for God, our fellow human beings, and the natural world is plain for all to see in the United States and the Western world in general. Pope Francis, as well as Popes Benedict and John Paul II have WARNED us about this.
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Posted by: unum -
Jun. 03, 2017 11:19 PM ET USA
Perhaps Bishop Sorondo should have listened to the Holy Spirit instead of human sources before he pronounced judgement on either the Paris Accords or President Trump. Making political statements is not teaching the faithful, and are not our bishops supposed to teach as Jesus did?
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Posted by: Gregory108 -
Jun. 03, 2017 8:12 PM ET USA
This is proof-positive that ordination doesn't eliminate cluelessness (I'd use another word, but this note wouldn't see the light of day)about science, economics and sound government policy. Nor does rising in the Church hierarchy suggest acquisition of such knowledge. The higher they climb, the wronger they seem to become! Maybe that's why "it is not right that the they should neglect the preaching of the Word to serve" as government advisors." Let others, men with common sense, be appointed.
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Posted by: claude-ccc2991 -
Jun. 03, 2017 3:44 PM ET USA
If climatemodels were true 1/xtra H2O would evaporate 2/taking along XtraLatentHeatOfEvaporation(xLHOE) in rising to the UpperTroposphere(UT) 3/where condensation releases xLHOE /4producing a WarmingRate(WR)>>the ground-that's ManmadeGlobalWarming101. In fact the UT WR doesn't exceed the ground WR, so non-natural warming by man is UNDETECTABLE. That no prelate knows or could even fathom this would dictate humble silence - normally! Better for a fool to remain silent than to speak up & prove it.
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Posted by: feedback -
Jun. 03, 2017 8:49 AM ET USA
It seems that none of these anti-Trump prelates bothered to hear what the President had to say about his decision. They also assume that the "agreement" was so perfect that the US of A had absolutely no other choice but to sign it with a smile. Besides dubious and politicized "science" at the base of that "agreement," it did completely nothing to curb pollution from the world's largest industrial pollutants: China and India. It would heavily burden the US while not helping the environment at all
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Posted by: brenda22890 -
Jun. 03, 2017 5:44 AM ET USA
These people weary me, now.
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Posted by: WBSM -
Jun. 03, 2017 3:47 AM ET USA
Let as not forget that the president is fulfilling one of his campaign promises, and that the Paris accord was accepted by Obama without senate approval, a very disadvantageous agreement for the USA (not so for China and India, for example). Pulling out of the Paris deal is not about lack of desire to lower carbon emissions but a mere necessity for the US and for a president who was elected promising he would do this. It is a pity that Vatican officials swallow and reproduce such rhetoric.
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Posted by: jalsardl5053 -
Jun. 03, 2017 12:24 AM ET USA
Yet more nonsense and poppycock from clergy. No wonder you have problems in the church. It's pointless to try to educate you concerning the huge cost the average Joe in the street would pay for the Paris folly - folly because climate "science" has become nothing but a political football with the Paris accord being the latest charade in the continuing exercise of much ado about nothing. Congrats to the Prez for making a sound economic call in the face of unsound hypotheses.
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Posted by: Randal Mandock -
Jun. 02, 2017 9:18 PM ET USA
No scientist who has ever looked at the data would deny that global temperature today is warmer than it was at the end of the Little Ice Age 170 years ago. It is not the _fact_ of the temperature increase that is of concern, but the _causes_. I took a first look at the data in 2013. In preparing a paper for a conference, I conducted a harmonic analysis on the data. A month later a group of Germans published results that agreed with my own. Analysis shows that natural cycles cannot be ruled out.
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Posted by: Randal Mandock -
Jun. 02, 2017 9:03 PM ET USA
Bp. Sorondo left out the word "power." Otherwise he is mimicking the Pope's words. I am glad that Cardinal Marx was not surprised by Trump's action, but I'll bet he was as surprised as were the U.S. politicians who thought that Trump's spine is as noodle-ish as most of their own. It seems that the good prelates are as convinced of the superiority of the national state over the individual as your average leftist is. They don't leave room for subsidiarity and individual and corporate conscience.
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Posted by: Thomas429 -
Jun. 02, 2017 7:40 PM ET USA
Get over it. Our "real" boss, you know "God", is the only one that can control the weather. I was done with this bunch of yahoos when it went from we are causing an "Ice Age" to we are causing "Global Immolation". Everybody should have started to ignore them when it became "Climate Change". They do not know how to stop it if they do not know what it is.
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Posted by: MWCooney -
Jun. 02, 2017 5:17 PM ET USA
If only some of these religious higher-ups were as diligent in defending the Catholic faith as they are their pseudo-religion of Climatism.
