I was at Mass on Sunday and one of the prayer intentions was to join in with Pope Francis who wants us to add a new work of mercy. I forget if it’s classified under corporal or spiritual. But he wants to add a couple. One has to do with sharing resources with the less fortunate or something and the other is about protecting mother earth. All I could do was sigh. Pope Francis is such an activist pope. He can’t just leave anything alone. People aren’t coming into the Church because of all the new stuff that’s happening. They want the original and undiluted. Why is he so intent on changing everything?
BUT Phil! What’s wrong with sharing and protecting the earth???? Nothing in principle. But the corporal and spiritual works of mercy have been around for like 1000 years. And now he will just change them?? They are already complete in my opinion. Jesus was never focused on saving mother earth and earth-worship. He cared more about our disposition towards God and man. And those are thoroughly addressed by the existing works of mercy. In fact, they are taken from the words of Christ himself. Feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the prisoner, etc. What we do with plastic bottles is something each person must decide. Nobody wants to destroy the planet for no purpose. Pope Francis, in his encyclical seems to think the earth is becoming a giant trash heap. He even says this. Like really? The main source of “trash” is the trash morality we have. But he rarely seems to address that. He is more interested in climate change or whatever.
While Pope Francis is trying to come across as hip and “with it”, he’s not bringing any new people into the Church. That’s statistically verified. Why not stick to what Catholicism is about? Spiritual growth and becoming holier, it’s not about reducing our carbon footprint.
