Religion & Liberty Online Archives

Environmental Stewardship

Pope Francis’ Incoherent Economics

Peter Johnson, external relations officer for the Acton Institute, discusses the muddled economic message in the recent encyclical for The Federalist: While I don’t doubt for a moment that Pope Francis sincerely wants to help the poor, I think it would be difficult for even the most erudite Catholic scholars to find a coherent message in a passage like this. Continue Reading...

A Healthy Dose Of Skepticism For Scientific Consensus

My husband and I had a conversation about science on the way home from church yesterday. Since he is a scientist, it drives him a little buggy when people talk about “consensus” as a way to come to a scientific conclusion, or that scientific facts can be “bent” to uphold a particular opinion or viewpoint. Continue Reading...

Fr. Sirico in the Wall Street Journal: The Pope’s Green Theology

In an op-ed published in the Wall Street Journal, Fr. Robert Sirico writes about the encyclical, the role of free markets and the need for continuous conversation about the environment: Let’s cut to the chase: Much of what is in Pope Francis’ encyclical on environmental stewardship, Laudato Si’, poses a major challenge for free-market advocates, those of us who believe that capitalism is a powerful force for caring for the earth and lifting people out of poverty. Continue Reading...

Samuel Gregg: Pope Francis’ Economic Blind Spots

Samuel Gregg, director of research at the Acton Institute, spoke with Business Spectator about the economic message of the new encyclical: When you read through the text, you find the free market, and finance in particular, is identified more or less as responsible for many environmental problems, Dr Gregg said.  Continue Reading...

Evangelicals and Pope Francis’s Encyclical on the Environment

When Pope Francis releases his encyclical tomorrow there is a group of Christians that will be eager to respond: American evangelicals. Rather than responding based on what we read in the headlines, says Spence Spencer, evangelicals should read the encyclical in light of historic Roman Catholic teaching: Whatever the content of the new encyclical is, we must read it in concert with previous teachings of the Church.  Continue Reading...