Environment: President and Pope

For John, BLUF:  Darn, we have to think.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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TRUMP AND LAUDATO SI'

From Dr Michael Pakaluk, professor of philosophy at Catholic University of America, in the Boston Pilot, 9 June 2017 (playing catchup here).

The question and sub-headline:

How should a Catholic view President Trump's decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris Climate Accord? Was it a "slap in the face" to the Vatican, as Bishop Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo claimed?  After all, Pope Francis had timed the publication of his encyclical, "Laudato Si", "On the Care for our Common Home," so that it would appear in time for the Paris meeting, to support that accord.

Here is how the Professor starts out:

First, as a general rule, the laity have primary responsibility for the temporal sphere. I'm not saying this of my own accord. It is the teaching of the magisterium of the Church in the Second Vatican Council: "The laity must take up the renewal of the temporal order as their own special obligation" (Decree on Lay Apostolate, n. 7). The typical role of pastors in contrast is to teach general principles: "Pastors must clearly state the principles concerning the purpose of creation and the use of temporal things," (ibid.).

Thus there is a complementarity characteristic of any peaceful social order: pastors state general principles in matters of faith and morals, but then leave it to the laity, in freedom, to use their judgment in particular applications. The laity can rightly claim freedom to apply principles by their own lights with goodwill.

I leave it to you to read and share.

Regards  —  Cliff