“As someone who lived under communism for most of my life I feel obliged to say that the biggest threat to freedom, democracy, the market economy and prosperity at the beginning of the 21st century is not communism or its various softer variants. Communism was replaced by the threat of ambitious environmentalism…The so-called climate change and especially man-made climate change has become one of the most dangerous arguments aimed at distorting human efforts and public policies in the whole world.” Czech President Vaclav Klaus

“Right now, the mass media, politicians, many church figures, and the public generally seem to have embraced even the wilder claims about man-made climate change as if they constituted a new religion…In the 1970s some scientists were predicting a new ice age because of global cooling…It is true that some of the more hysterical and extreme claims about global warming appear symptomatic of a pagan emptiness…Perhaps they’re looking for a cause that is almost a substitute for religion…In the past pagans sacrificed animals and even humans in vain attempts to placate capricious and cruel gods. Today they demand a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions…Radical environmentalists are more than up to the task of moralizing their own agenda and imposing it on people through fear. They don’t need church leaders to help them with this, although it is a very effective way of further muting Christian witness… Church leaders in particular should be allergic to nonsense.” Cardinal Pell in Catholic World Report

Tomorrow is the DOR’s Public Policy Sunday. We will be asked to sign petitions requesting that NYS direct money from emissions allowances to various energy initiatives. Last year it was petitions for universal child health insurance. When will the diocese’s Public Policy Committee circulate petitions calling for an end to abortion and embryonic stem cell research?

In the meantime I would suggest that people write on the petitions: “Make abortion the #1 priority of the PPC!”. Or people could write: “Church leaders in particular should be allergic to nonsense!”.