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Saturday, December 19, 2015

Bishop Sorondo's Statement on Global Warming: "It Is an embarrassment to the Church."

“To equate a papal position on abortion with a position on global warming is worse than wrong; it is an embarrassment for the Church.”...Fr. Fessio was unabashed in his criticism. “Bishop Sorondo is unknown to me, and – judging by this statement – eminently worthy of that ignorance,” he commented. “The best I can say of his remarks is that they seem to have been unprepared.”

What's it all about? LifeSiteNews explains:
The controversy was sparked when in his address Bishop Sorondo spoke of “global warming” saying that in Laudato Si “for the first time in the Magisterium” Pope Francis “denounces the scientifically identifiable causes of this evil, declaring that: ‘a number of scientific studies indicate that most global warming in recent decades is due to the great concentration of greenhouse gases released mainly as a result of human activity.’” He repeated the point later, saying, “faith and reason, philosophical knowledge and scientific knowledge, are brought together for the first time in the pontifical Magisterium in Laudato Si'."...
“It is under Ordinary Magisterium,” he explained, “that abortion is a grievous sin – this is Ordinary Magisterium because there is not the revelation of it.” So there is an assumption of “moral doctrine,” he continued, that even though the majority opinion is contrary, we accept that “abortion is a grievous sin” is Magisterium. 
This led to a heated exchange with panel presenters at the conference, especially journalist Riccardo Cascioli, who objected to the suggestion that Catholics must submit to pronouncements on “scientific theories” rather than “faith and morals.”
Sorondo retorted by saying, “When the Pope has assumed this, it is Magisterium of the Church whether you like it or not -- it is the Magisterium of the Church just as abortion is a grievous sin – equal (it is the same)… it is Magisterium of the Church... whether you like it or not.”
So...the magisterium is now determining the accuracy of scientific hypotheses and computer models by magisterial pronouncement. Hmmm...was that what Laudato Si was all about -- equating the bogus theory of man-made global warming with the murder of the innocent? Last I heard, burning coal and running your air conditioner are not sins that cry to heaven for vengeance. But at the Vatican today some prelates seem convinced they are equal. One suspects the concern over man-made global warming is intense at the Vatican because of the amount of hot air rising over the dome of St. Peter's. As for Bishop Sorondo's statement -- it's likely to end up in the apology file along with the case of Galileo.