by Jozef Daniel Astley
Have you ever wondered why climate change has become such a major theme since the beginning of Pope Francis’ pontificate in 2013? The issue behind the issue is little known and understood. The Roman Pontiff and his emissaries are exploiting the issue to push Catholic Social Doctrine into practical politics. Since the publication of Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical Rerum Novarum in 1891, the Vatican has repeatedly called for a world government and redistribution of wealth. This call was repeated recently by Pope Francis in his encyclical on climate change titled Laudato Si,’ in which he urged a “better distribution of wealth” and repeated Pope Benedict’s call for “a true world political authority.” But the papal quest for economic and political reform is only part of the issue behind the issue. The world’s religions are already rallying around the issue of climate change and their ethical mobilization of mankind is destined to result in worldwide legislation – a Global Ethic – that will break down the wall of separation between church and state and deprive mankind of its religious liberties.
To see what is really going on, it is necessary to line up developments and trace some history. On 19 March 2014, independent researchers published a study that was partially funded by NASA and the University of Maryland titled ‘Human and Nature Dynamics (HANDY): Modeling Inequality and Use of Resources in the Collapse or Sustainability of Societies.’ The report looked at how the relation between man and nature affects societal collapse. It received considerable attention in the international media and was erroneously popularized as a “NASA-study,” although NASA officially distanced itself from the study. By that time the good name of the world’s most famous space flight center had launched the researchers to international fame. They claimed that “over-exploitation of natural resources and strong economic stratification [i.e. the ever widening gap between the rich and the poor], can independently result in a complete collapse” of society. This sounds a bit like the Marxist interpretation of history: “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.” The “over-exploitation of natural resources” is frequently blamed on capitalists, as Pope Francis has done in his encyclical. We are clearly dealing with political propaganda. The authors of the HANDY report proposed a solution, however, that could save civilization from its impending doom. “…Collapse can be avoided and population can reach equilibrium,” they said, “if the per capita rate of depletion of nature is reduced to a sustainable level, and if resources are distributed in a reasonably equitable fashion.”
This call for better balance between man and nature together with a redistribution of wealth was repeated several months later. On 2-6 May 2014, the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences had hosted a Joint Workshop at Casina Pio VI in the Vatican Gardens around the theme, ‘Sustainable Humanity, Sustainable Nature: Our Responsibility.’ The meeting was attended by an interreligious group of scientists who issued a joint statement in which they likewise declared that Sustainable Development required “a fair redistribution of wealth.” They said, “It has become abundantly clear that Humanity’s relationship with Nature needs to be undertaken by cooperative, collective action at all levels – local, regional, and global.”
The day following the conference, on May 7, 2014, Christiana Figueres, the UN authority on Climate Change wrote an article for the The Guardian titled ‘Faith leaders need to find their voice on climate change’ in which she urged the world’s religions to mobilize mankind to save the planet. She wrote:
“Saving the Earth and its peoples from dangerous climate change is an economic, social and environmental issue – and a moral and ethical one too that goes to the core of many if not all of the world’s great faiths… It is time for faith groups and religious institutions to find their voice and set their moral compass on one of the great humanitarian issues of our time. Overcoming poverty, caring for the sick and the infirm, feeding the hungry and a whole range of other faith-based concerns will only get harder in a climate challenged world.” (Emphasis added)
Two days later, on May 9, Pope Francis had a private audience at the Vatican with the United Nations Chief Executives Board and Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon. In his speech the pope urged the 29 heads of U.N. agencies to promote the redistribution of wealth. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon replied to Francis’ speech with the words, “I count on the Catholic Church, under your leadership, to continue to work closely with the United Nations to promote a life of dignity for all. Our meeting today will send a very strong message of solidarity in our common cause. Your Holiness, it is my honour once again to invite you to grace us with your presence at United Nations Headquarters in New York at your earliest convenience. That would continue a tradition of papal visits – and be an opportunity for you to speak of your vision for our common future.” This “common cause” and “common future” forebodes a religio-political union between the Catholic Church and the United Nations – a union of church and of state on a global level – and so we would do well to keep an eye on these developments.
Pope Francis urged the delegates of the UN “to work together in promoting a true, worldwide ethical mobilization which, beyond all differences of religious or political convictions, will spread and put into practice a shared ideal of fraternity and solidarity, especially with regard to the poorest and those most excluded.”
Two of the scientists that participated in the Vatican workshop mentioned earlier, Prof Veerabhadran Ramanathan, a climate expert at the University of California, San Diego, and Prof Sir Partha Dasgupta, an economist based at St John’s College, Cambridge, co-authored an article titled ‘Pursuit of the common good’, which was published in Science Magazine on September 19, 2014. They wrote: “Natural and social scientists have done their part in documenting the irreversible environmental damages (albeit with large uncertainties) that we have inflicted and in spelling out specific mitigation actions. The transformational step may very well be a massive mobilisation of public opinion by the Vatican and other religions for collective action to safeguard the well-being of both humanity and the environment.”
This massive mobilisation has been going on for a while, most recently with a two-day conference hosted by the Vatican and attended by sixty mayors from around the world, who pledged themselves to fight climate change. The meeting served to keep up pressure on member states of the United Nations and push them toward a bold agreement at the Climate Change Conference in Paris later this year. In light of the foregoing, it is abundantly clear that Climate Change has become a kind of “Popemobile” whereby Pope Francis and his Jesuit militia intend to ride the road to political power, establish “a true world political authority,” and enforce a “better distribution of wealth.” To accomplish this purpose they need public support and hence the repeated call for “a massive mobilisation of public opinion by the Vatican and other religions.” Pope Francis’ upcoming visit to the USA, with his scheduled speeches to Congress on September 24 and to the United Nations General Assembly on September 25, is likely to have major implications for church-state relations. The same can be said of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris from 30 November to 11 December.
Religion, politics and the economy are being drawn together and everything indicates that we stand on the verge of major changes. It is high time for students of Bible prophecy to wake up, trim their lamps and make sure they have enough spiritual oil in their vessels. The real issue behind the issue is plainly stated in the prophetic word:
“But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt: and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps.” (Dan. 11:43)
“And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.” (Rev. 13:16-17)
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