A Blog for Dallas Area Catholics

Catholic Charities funding ‘global warming’ lobby groups February 23, 2010

A couple of weeks ago, I came across a website called www.catholicclimatecovenant.org .  What the…..?  Catholic Climate…….zuh?  Coven of what?

What a name – paging Winston Smith!  Anyway, this came about when the story broke that the Archdiocese of Washington, DC, was recommending that the Lenten fast of their parishioners should be a ‘carbon fast,’ to reduce their carbon footprint.  Genius!  Nothing focuses the mind on Christ’s once and for all time Sacrifice and the singular gift of the Eucharist like compact flourescent lightbulbs. 

In thumbing around some of the materials for the ‘carbon fast,’ I found they all pointed back towards this www.catholicclimatecovenant.org  website.  Apparently, this website was put together by the Washington, DC diocesan “environmental outreach commitee.’  What I found on that website was very interesting.  Under the tab, ‘coalition members’, we find the following statement:

The Catholic Coalition on Climate Change is a membership organization drawing guidance and support from a growing list of national Catholic organizations.

Note, they draw support from these groups – as in staff time, administrative resources, and money.  Especially money.

Who are some of the groups making up the Catholic Coalition on Climate Change?  Yes, there is the usual panoply of dissent oriented groups like the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, National Catholic Rural Life Conference, the Franciscan Action Network and the Carmelite NGO (non-governmental organization – go check out their website for their UN credentials!), but we also have some unexpected finds.  I mentioned some yesterday, but these include charitable organizations whose fundamental purpose would seem to be at odds with this ‘climate change’ lobbying.  Included are:

• Catholic Charities USA
• Catholic Relief Services
• Catholic Health Association of the USA
• Caritas International

All of the above groups are known for their efforts to relieve the suffering of the poor (except for CHA).  What on Earth does climate change have to do with the poor?  Well, in the collective minds of these organizations, apparently climate change poses a threat to the entire world through food production, etc., and hence, causes the poor to suffer more.  Apparently, this increased suffering is such a great threat that these charitable organizations have come to the conclusion that some of the money given to them to help alleviate the suffering of the poor is better spent on lobbying for a massive intrusion of various world governments into the economic functions of their societies, in order to reduce the threat of climate change.

This is amazing, on two fronts.  One, there is a huge distance between any potential threat of climate change and an increased suffering of the poor.  How do you know when a certain change in the climate is causing the poor to suffer more?  Aren’t there far more pressing concerns to devote this precious funding to?  Is this really something Catholic Charities needs to focus on, or even be associated with?  Why?

Secondly……are these people completley tone deaf?  Have they not seen the news?  The idea of global warming has been all but completely debunked.  The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is falling apart – the head of that organization just resigned in disgrace.  One of the biggest scientist supporters of climate change just resigned from the main university promoting this concept (East Anglia in the UK), and the other big science name behind this concept, Michael Mann, is under investigation and will probably have to resign, as well.   The only people who still support anthropogenic (man-caused) global warming or climate change are those who have a huge stake in it becoming a driving concern for governmental policy. 

Once again, I express my disappointment in the goals and agendas of these organizations.  There are many good people who give to Catholic Charities USA, Catholic Relief Services, and Caritas, who would be extremely disappointed to learn that some of their donated money may be supporting climate change activism – activism which is extremely misplaced.  This activism is driven by a world view that must be far too centered on man – a fear that man can destroy God’s creation, rather than be part of it, and a view that man can be hugely improved, if not perfected, through human efforts.  Both views are contrary to Church doctrine.  Even worse is the continual involvement of these charitable organizations, which the faithful expect will provide direct help to the poor, in directing some of their most high profile efforts to political activism.  And always a form of activism in line with a certain political philosophy.

I don’t know why Catholic Health Association (CHA) would be supporting this, save for some vague notion that climate change poses a threat to human health.   But, supporting climate change activism does fit in nicely with the preferred politics of CHA, favoring massive government involvement in the (formerly) private sector, be it in health care or using a false environmental threat to achieve this end. 

I really do love it when I get accused of being nothing more than a right-wing idealogue bent on attacking the Church.  Psychological projection, is there nothing it can’t do?