Pope Francis was a historic figure. He was the first Jesuit pope and the first from the Americas or the Southern Hemisphere. He was the first pope to take the name Francis, a nod to St. Francis of Assisi, a mendicant who espoused the ideal of poverty and service to people. (He was also the patron saint of the environment, animals, and birds.) Francis had considerable charm and humility, two qualities that the Catholic Church needed in the wake of his imperious predecessor, Pope Benedict. He worked until the very end of his life. Despite a long illness, he appeared in St Peter’s Square on Easter Sunday and died on Easter Monday.
But before we begin the beatification process, let’s take a sober look at what Jorge Mario Bergoglio said about energy while serving as the 266th pope. Doing so shows that the late pontiff’s views weren’t just naïve. They were anti-human.
His 2023 apostolic exhortation, “Laudate Deum,” reads like it was written by Greta Thunberg and a horde of Brussels-based bureaucrats. Francis claims that “millions of people are losing their jobs due to different effects of climate change: rising sea levels, droughts, and other phenomena affecting the planet have left many people adrift. Conversely, the transition to renewable forms of energy, properly managed, as well as efforts to adapt to the damage caused by climate change, are capable of generating countless jobs in different sectors.”
Millions are losing their jobs due to climate change? Where, exactly, is that happening? If the transition is “properly managed,” it could create “countless jobs”? Really? Doing what? Putting solar panels on convent rooftops? Who will ensure “proper” management? Germany? Francis didn’t back up any of those extravagant claims. Laudate Deum contains 44 footnotes. That paragraph doesn’t have a single citation.
Francis’ main felony appears in paragraph 55, where he claims, “the necessary transition towards clean energy sources such as wind and solar energy, and the abandonment of fossil fuels, is not progressing at the necessary speed.”
Let’s ignore the foolishness of attempting to run the global economy on the incurably intermittent energy provided by the wind and sun. Let’s also ignore the landscape-obliterating, bird-and-bat-killing, farmland-paving energy sprawl that comes with large alt-energy projects. Instead, let’s focus on hydrocarbons. Claiming we should give up coal, oil, and natural gas — which, according to the latest IEA data, provide 80% of all global energy — ignores physics, economics, and the needs of the world’s poorest people.
Read the rest of this piece at Robert Bryce Substack.
Robert Bryce is a Texas-based author, journalist, film producer, and podcaster. His articles have appeared in a myriad of publications including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Forbes, Time, Austin Chronicle, and Sydney Morning Herald.
Photo: Catholic Church (England and Wales), via Flickr, under CC 2.0 License.
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