A Pope of Hope
His personal life, words and actions, and the values and priorities he is setting for the Church are ones which can bring about phenomenal change in our world. With 16% of the world Catholic (32% Christian) and with the Holy See as the undisputed head and authority of Catholicism, Pope Francis has perhaps more influence over the future of our planet than anyone.
A Global Consciousness Shortage
So much of what ails our planet today is due to the choices being made by those who have the luxury to choose. Our choice of what to eat, what to wear, what to purchase, how to travel – these simple, every day unconscious decisions literally mean life or death for Planet Earth and all of the creatures with whom we share it. According to a report by the United Nations, the livestock industry is the single greatest contributor to global warming. In a tragic irony, the United States itself produces enough grain to provide every person on Earth with two loaves of bread a day, and yet tens of thousands of children perish each day from starvation and more than a billion people sleep hungry. The amount of water that goes into the production of a meal of hamburgers for a typical American family is the difference between a sufficient harvest and a desiccated field for a farmer in India. Current practices of the livestock industry as well as cotton and palm oil plantations are leading to world hunger, water shortages, and irreparable deforestation of rainforests – the richest source of oxygen as well as medicine.
Shifts from a meat-based diet to a vegetarian one, and shifts from lifestyles focused on purchasing the most items for the cheapest price to lifestyles focused on living in harmony with the Earth, are shifts that can truly and almost immediately change the course of our planet. These are choices and decisions to be made not only by those who self-identify as compassionate, spiritual people, but by all. Pope Francis has clarified by stating, “We must regain the conviction that we need one another, that we have a shared responsibility for others and the world, and that being good and decent are worth it…. We have to say ‘thou shalt not’ to an economy of exclusion and inequality. Such an economy kills.”
