| Religious organisations tend to operate slowly and ponderously, while environmental politics, and sometimes the environment itself, move more rapidly. The Vatican had intended to release Pope Francis's long-planned encyclical on climate change in a carefully choreographed event on the morning of June 18th, but a version of it, apparently pretty close to the final one, was leaked to the world by L'Espresso, an Italian magazine, four days early.
The document's release is still a dramatic event. By throwing his personal authority behind the global effort to mitigate climate change, the pope has made a significant intervention in world affairs. From the secular world's perspective, this is probably the most important step he has made during his two-year papacy...............................................Full Article: Source
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