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Pope Francis

Kirsten Powers: New green pope's encyclical colors climate change debate

Following in the footsteps of Benedict XVI and John Paul II is the right move for the church.

Kirsten Powers
Pope Francis holds a green parrot in during his weekly general audience in St. Peter square at the Vatican in 2014.

Pope Francis will release a teaching letter — known as an encyclical — on Thursday that's thought to be the first in the church's history to focus on the environment.

A leaked version of the document endorses the notion that human activity contributes to climate change and that this menace disproportionately harms the poor.

Many U.S. conservatives are not pleased, believing that that the Vatican is blindly bending to elite opinion and stepping out of its lane. Leave the climate change issue to the politicians, they argue. Some conservative Catholics have expressed concern to me that Pope Francis is pulling a "reverse Galileo" by endorsing science that could turn out to be wrong, thus harming the credibility of the Catholic Church.

Perhaps there should be more concern in the alternative. If the science is correct, then how would the church's silence in obeisance to conservative climate skepticism enhance its credibility? After all, the American Association for the Advancement of Science announced in 2014 that the scientific consensus that "climate change is happening, and human activity is the cause" is as airtight as the "science linking smoking to lung and cardiovascular diseases."

The latter (seemingly obvious) link was not always accepted. In a 1956 Atlantic piece, the American Cancer Society's Charles Cameron addressed skeptics of 14 studies establishing a connection between smoking and disease. Cameron explained, "The (ACS), along with a growing body of professional and scientific opinion, has taken this position: Although the complicity of the cigarette in the present prevalence of cancer of the lung has not been proved to the satisfaction of everyone, yet the weight of evidence against it is so serious as to demand of stewards of the public welfare that they make the evidence known to all."

Even so, the ACS would not "propose to tell the public not to smoke." Cameron noted, "If time should establish the innocence of tobacco, such a course will prove less blameworthy than failure to suggest caution to smokers and potential smokers of cigarettes today."

We all know how that went.

Similarly, the potential error of the Vatican advocating for measures to combat climate change based on scientific consensus is far less dangerous than the error of disregarding that consensus. Moreover, advocating for the care of God's creation actually does fit squarely in the pontiff's bailiwick. Pope Benedict XVI was dubbed the "green pope" for his rallying cries to protect the environment, and Pope John Paul II spoke powerfully of "ecological responsibility."

Now, Pope Francis is elevating the issue with the encyclical. Why?A recent Public Religion Research Institute poll found an interesting division among U.S. Catholics on the issue of climate change:White Catholics are twice as likely as Hispanic Catholics to say climate change is not happening, whereas Hispanic Catholics are far more likely than white Catholics (61% to 39%) to say that scientists agree human activity is responsible for increasing temperatures on earth.Hispanic Catholics are also three times more likely to believe they'll be personally impacted by climate change.

Perhaps the pope's position as the first pontiff from the developing world is influencing his sense of urgency. Whatever the case, "Laudato Si (Be Praised), On the Care of Our Common Home," as the upcoming encyclical is called, will likely be a unique, and welcome, contribution to the environmental debate.

Kirsten Powers writes weekly for USA TODAYand is author of the upcomingThe Silencing: How the Left is Killing Free Speech.

In addition to its own editorials, USA TODAY publishes diverse opinions from outside writers, including our Board of Contributors. To read more columns like this, go to the Opinion front page.

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