A Papal Call To Action on Climate Change

In a significant move to use the Catholic Church's influence on another major issue worldwide, Pope Francis will issue a papal encyclical next year calling on the world's 1.2 billion Catholics to act on climate change.  Seeing climate change as a threat to humanity and an assault on "Creation," the Pope will be marshaling the efforts of Catholics all over the world to combat it.

The Pope's action on climate change will almost certainly rile right-wing Catholics who are fuming over his conciliatory statements on gays, and his exhortations against unchecked capitalism, among other statements.  It will be interesting to see how nominal Catholics from Bill O'Liely and Sean "Heil" Hannity to the right-wing Catholic League's Bill Donohue and cynical convert Poot Gingrich argue with that.