Santorum wants to pick the pope's positions

Pope Francis is soon to release what is being described as a "groundbreaking encyclical" on climate change.   It's widely believed that the pope will make his position clear that we have a moral and religious imperative to fight climate change and take care of our planet.

This document will probably be released before the pope's historic visit to the World Meeting of Families being held in Philadelphia this September.

This presents a problem for aspiring Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum:   A former senator from Pennsylvania, he is a devout Roman Catholic and he disagrees with the pope on climate change.

Santorum is trying a pre-emptive ploy, telling a Philadelphia radio host that the pope should "leave science to the scientists. . . . The church has gotten it wrong a few times on science, and I think that we probably are better off  leaving science to the scientists and focusing on what we're really good at, which is theology and morality. . . .  When we get involved with political and controversial scientific theories, I think the church is not as forceful and credible."

Pope Francis earned a master's degree in chemistry before he entered the priesthood.    So it's quite likely that he can evaluate the overwhelming support that scientists give to the role human actions play in climate change, as opposed to the miniscule number of scientists who raise doubts.    He will take the science as a given -- and his encyclical will likely read more as a "moral and religious" imperative than a scientific debate.

Francis is a gentle shepherd for his flock, and he will no doubt be kind to Rick.   But he is also firm in his convictions -- and everything he has said and done suggests that he is not likely to take Rick Santorum's suggestion on this issue.

Ralph

[Note:   In an earlier post on this, I mistakenly referred to the pope as "Benedict" instead of "Francis."   I regret the error, especially since there is such a difference in this pope and Benedict, his predecessor, on many issues I care greatly about.]