Pope Francis' controversial encyclical on the environment — in which he bares his concerns about climate change and "rails against air conditioning" — is likely to irk his Catholic flock, Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, tells
Newsmax TV.
"His love of God's creatures is genuine — nobody can question that. But when you get into the specifics as he does, which his predecessors never did, and you start making arguments such as carbon dioxide causes pollution, well most scientists wouldn't agree with that," Donohue said Thursday on "The Steve Malzberg Show."
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Carbon dioxide is the air we breathe, it's the respiratory system of plants, it's not a human additive.... When we make arguments, for example … [he] rails against air conditioning, Catholics will have their eyes rolling.
"And people who are not Catholic will say, 'Where are we going with this, what kind of authority would the Pope have to get into the weeds on such things of this nature?'"
In the 190-page encyclical released Thursday, the Pontiff says "a very solid scientific consensus" indicates that global warming is real, and will limit drinking water, harm agriculture, lead to extinctions of plant and animal life, acidify oceans and raise sea levels.
Pope Francis also urges small lifestyle changes, including "using public transport or car-pooling, planting trees, (and) turning off unnecessary lights." He says while some climate change is naturally occurring, scientific studies indicate global warming "mainly" results from human activity.
Donohue — a Newsmax contributor and author of
"The Catholic Advantage: Why Health, Happiness, and Heaven Await the Faithful," published by Image — added the encyclical contains edicts that that liberals and conservatives will both like and dislike.
"Certainly, the conservatives are not going to like his left-leaning politics, [and] the fact that he looks through the lens [with] a kind of a socialist model in terms of understanding the economy. He's very strongly opposed to market forces and alike," Donohue said.
"On the other hand, liberals aren't going to like the fact that he talks about the protection of the embryo. He's against abortion, he's against population control and he emphasizes the fundamental nature root of differences between men and women. He's a maverick."
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