Last week, Pope Francis announced that the Catholic
Church was considering introducing into the Catechism "the sin
against ecology, the ecological sin against the common
home."
My immediate question on seeing this statement was whether it
would have any impact on the fight against climate change or other
environmental degradation. After all, the Vatican estimates that
there are more than 1.2 billion Catholics world-wide. If any
significant percentage of them are moved by the Church's
pronouncements on this subject to work towards greater
environmental protection, that would certainly be a good thing.
Here's my concern. I am not Catholic and I don't know
anything about the Catechism. I do admire Pope Francis,
particularly for his evident humility. Unfortunately, not everyone
is as humble as he.
I noted as far back as 2010 (and
again in 2015) that the great sin of the environmental movement
is self-righteousness. I don't know if that self-righteousness
is as
