“This morning, Pope Francis released his Encyclical ‘Laudato Si’ on care for our common home. Pope Francis writes with beauty, with clarity and with moral force. This encyclical stands as an urgent call for government, industry and the whole community to honor the responsibility to preserve God’s creation.“It was interesting to me because when we were working on the climate bill in 2009, we had as part of our coalition a large number of evangelicals and they had their own approach which was so beautiful and so similar to Pope Francis’ this seven years later, six years later or whatever. Their materials were about this planet is God’s creation and we have a moral responsibility to preserve it. And as we do so, we have to recognize the impact of climate change on the poor. And we have to further recognize solutions to reversing the climate crisis, solutions and their impact on the poor. And the Pope in his statement talks so much about the impact on the poor.
“He quotes Saint Francis at the beginning and, of course, for me that is our patron saint of the City of San Francisco – our namesake, the Pope’s namesake – and in our Song of Saint Francis which I quoted the first day I was sworn in as Speaker of the House. I quoted the Song of Saint Francis: ‘Where there is darkness may we bring light.’ And His Holiness is bringing light on this subject. He talks about the bond that we have as a community in terms of our home – as he references our planet – the poor, society and community and peace. He said that we cannot make ourselves God by usurping the power. We do not have the right, he said, to trample God’s creation. I want to commend President Obama for his remarkable leadership on climate change, the leadership of the evangelical community and so many others. We really must listen to His Holiness as we go forward.”
