Venice, Italy, Aug 6, 2017 / 04:02 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- While Antonio Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” echoes in concert halls and elevators around the world, for some, his greatest masterpieces are not the scores resonating spring, summer, fall and winter, but rather his sacred music.
Although less known, Vivaldi’s sacred music compositions, according to a researcher and expert on the musician’s life, is probably his greatest contribution to music – featuring an altogether unprecedented combination of deep spirituality and the contemporary trends of the time.
And this profound personal spirituality was rooted in what is likely a little-known fact for many: Antonio Vivaldi was a Catholic priest.
“I’m going to give you the most bizarre idea. Think of the Pope, who represents priests, spiritual things, and then you’ve got Jimmy Hendrix, a superb guitarist. You put them together and you’ve got Vivaldi,” British researcher Micky White told CNA Aug. 1.
It’s a combination altogether “bizarre,” she said. “Vivaldi the priest, deeply spiritual, comes out in his music. Jimmy Hendrix Vivaldi you’ve heard in the Four Seasons; it’s the most bizarre piece of music.”
“It’s timely, a priest wrote it,” and it’s meshed with the modern style of the day – a combination of two things that are essentially “polls apart,” she said. “That’s what makes him stand out among anybody. Bach wasn’t a priest, Mozart wasn’t a priest, nor was Beethoven, but Vivaldi was.
In listening to Vivaldi, it’s obvious that he was a very faith-filled man, she said, “you hear it in his music, you listen to it.”
White, who left a thriving greeting card company in England and moved to Venice to pursue an increasing interest in researching Vivaldi’s life, has become an expert and point of reference on the musician.
Not only has she published a book, “Antonio Vivaldi: A Life in Documents,” as the fruit of her research, but she was a consultant for a new display on his life called “Viva Vivaldi: The Four Seasons Mystery.”
The exhibit, located just behind St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice, provides attendees with an indoor video-mapping show done with immersive HD images, surround sound and scent special effects such as scent and wind. It opened to the public May 13 at the Diocesan Museum, and will stay open during 2018.
One of the most famous Baroque composers, Antonio Lucio Vivaldi, affectionately known by many in his time as “the Red Priest” due to his auburn locks, was born in Venice in 1678.
His father, who was an instrumental figure in his life (pun intended), was a professional violinist, and taught his son how to play as a young child. The two then went on tour together throughout Venice, giving Vivaldi an extensive knowledge and even mastery of the violin from a young age.
In 1693, at the age of 15, he began studying for the priesthood. He was ordained in 1703 at the age of 25, and shortly after was appointed chaplain and Violin Master at a local orphanage called the Pio Ospedale della Pieta, or the Devout Hospital of Mercy.
The orphanage, called the “Pieta,” was founded in 1492 by a poor friar as a home for abandoned babies. Young children were typically raised by older girls already at the center, and while the boys were taught a specific trade and ousted at the age of 15, the girls were trained as musicians if they had the ability. If not, they were taught a different trade, such as reading or sewing.
The most talented of the girls stayed on and became members of the hospitals renown orchestra and choir. Vivaldi worked at the hospital from 1703-1715, when he was voted off the faculty. He was voted back in 1723, and remained until 1740, composing some of his most famous works during that time.
However, after just a year of being a priest, Vivaldi requested a dispensation form celebrating Mass due to his poor health. From birth he had been afflicted with a serious, unknown, health condition thought to be a form of asthma.
All that is known about the mysterious illness comes from the letter Vivaldi wrote asking for the dispensation, in which he referred to it as a “tightness of the chest.”
According to White, “it would have been very hard for Vivaldi to give up saying Mass. It would have been his own decision, a decision of nobody but himself, and he also gave up a good salary.”
She pointed to rumors alleging that he had been kicked out of the priesthood or even excommunicated, saying they “are so ignorant and so stupid,” because if one actually looks to the facts, the rumors are “not proven.”
She also addressed rumors that Vivaldi had abused the choir girls as the reason he was kicked off the Pieta faculty in 1715. These rumors, she said, “not only are they not true, they’re impossible.”
Not only would Vivaldi have never been welcomed back in 1723, but many of the girls who remained in the orchestra stayed until they were 70 or even 80 years old. The hospital was also overseen by several governors, so had there been abuse, Vivaldi would have been kicked out right away, “so that doesn’t add up,” White said.
People often make assumptions about the past or judge by their opinions, telling others that “’it must be like this’ or ‘so and so said that,’” White said, adding that when this happens “you go from bad to worse.”
But when she first started digging into her research on Vivaldi and putting the information into context, “then everything made sense,” she said, because “research is a matter of fact, it’s not a matter of opinion, and it’s not a matter of ideas, it’s fact.”
She insisted that his priesthood was likely an essential element of his music. Even after stepping down from his liturgical duties, Vivaldi never stopped being a priest, White said. “Once a priest always a priest.”
“He was ordained, he was a priest his whole life (and) his spirituality comes out in his music, all you have to do is listen and you’ll hear it.”
Although in poor health, Vivaldi made great strides in his musical career. He continued to write a variety of compositions, and received many commissions from all over Italy and Europe, for which he traveled frequently.
During one jaunt in 1722, Vivaldi moved to Rome, where he was invited to play for Pope Benedict XIII before moving back to Venice in 1725.
The various pieces he wrote throughout his career include several different types of concertos – from violin to orchestra – arias, sonatas, operas and sacred music.
But according to White, while the Four Seasons, written around 1721, and his many operas are what made Vivaldi rise to fame in his day, “sacred music is on another plane compared all the other compositions. It’s the empire of composition itself that comes from faith.”
Among the sacred scores written by Vivaldi are the Gloria, the Credo, the Stabat Mater, the Magnificat, Dixit Dominus and Laetatus sum, among others. The “Laetatus sum,” specifically, was written by Vivaldi at the age of 13 in 1691.
White said that while these are the known liturgical and sacred works, “there’s a lot, lot missing.”
Given his 38 year career at the hospital, there are likely many, many works of Vivaldi that have never been discovered, she said. For example, “I’m sure that he wrote full Masses, absolutely positive,” but they are likely all lost.
Despite the success he enjoyed during his career, Vivaldi died in poverty in Vienna July 28, 1741. He had moved to the Austrian country after meeting Emperor Charles VI, to whom he had dedicated his Opus 9 work, in 1728.
The emperor was so impressed with Vivaldi’s work that he gave the musician the title of Knight, a gold medal and an invitation to Vienna. However, the emperor died shortly after Vivaldi’s arrival several years later, and with no royal connection or steady income, Vivaldi became impoverished and died from an infection at the age of 63.
According to White, the greatest legacy that Vivaldi left can be summed up in one word: “music.”
“Music comes out of him, it doesn’t come out of his brain, it just pours out of him. It’s like a waterfall,” she said.
While his sacred and classical music might seem outdated in a society enthralled with artists such as Beyonce, Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber, White said Vivaldi is so versatile in his style that he can mesh with well with contemporary music as well as the older
“Vivaldi could do a rock concert quite easily, and Vivaldi can appeal to everyone,” she said. “Vivaldi, he’s alone, he’s absolutely unique. You talk about the Baroque style, and the romantic style…Vivaldi cuts that whole suede.”
With the “tremendous energy” present in his music, Vivaldi is truly one of a kind and is difficult to imitate, she said. “He doesn’t fit anywhere, and he fits everywhere.”
[…]
What an unbelievable joke.
Politicians going half way around the world to talk about a supposed global climate crisis?
Right. Like they’re experts at anything.
Anything at all.
I know a guy who parks cars at an upscale restaurant. He should go because he drives all those cars.
And I know an elderly lady who’s always cold because she weighs about 85 pounds. She should go.
It’s ridiculous.
These clowns think human sexuality isn’t binary but the earth’s endlessly variable climate is.
The only people stupider than the governors of California and New York are the gentlemen with big red noses and whoopee cushions at the Dark Vatican who invited them.
Do I sound annoyed? Resentful? Angry even?
So be it.
Jesus deserves so much, much better.
The Dark Vatican has more business addressing proper ballet technique, or the real story behind Fatty Arbuckle, or the history of trepanning.
Clowns addressing clowns addressing clowns.
I feel your hate.
I do not feel his hate but I sure feel his pain.
God does have a sense of humor. He created ears didn’t He. I’m sure he’ll give us some relief with this spectacle. Maybe Francis will call all the politicians “good Catholics” even if they’re not even Catholics by baptism. Always good for a laugh.
Perhaps the most apt image for the Franconian Papacy – a circus – replete with clowns, sideshows, bearded women, sword swallowing, sleight of hand, chimeras, dumbbell-lifting, house of horrors, and all orchestrated by the ringmaster himself- Bergoglio 1st.
So, they fly in all these imbeciles to talk about depletion of the ozone using vast amounts of fossil fuels to do so. As with Covid, the people are easily fooled by these clowns who hold the reins of power. Not to fear, though, the center is not holding and Deep State is falling apart as we speak.
Well said!
The only way that many of the proposed climate change measures will become reality is if everyone becomes wealthy, and I don’t think that will ever happen. And considering how few children are being born in the U.S. and considering how many American high school graduates are entering college (assuming that they actually set down their phones and come out of their bedrooms) to major in “human studies” or “equality issues”–well, there won’t be enough scientists and engineers to do any research that might change the entire outlook on climate change!
I think many (especially young people) in the U.S. are under the influence of the “celebrities,” especially actors and musicians, along with gamers and online “personalities” with unknown qualifications. My daughter (a practicing Catholic!) has worked in “show biz” all her life and earns a good living. She is very intelligent and earned a Masters’ degree–but her knowledge of science is quite limited, and she freely admits that! I think it’s sad when someone who pretends to be other people (or robots, animals, ghosts, fairy tale characters, etc.) or who tells us how to win at online games has so much influence over real-life people as they dispense “fantasy science” and somehow manage to convince us that it’s “real science.”
Brilliantly said, Sharon.
Powerful ignorance. Drill baby, drill!
How is drilling ignorance? I don’t know about you but my vehicle runs on gas & so do most people’s. Even if every single vehicle went electric it still requires a source to provide that energy.
CA has experienced power brown-outs. Can you imagine that many people all drawing current to charge their cars & trucks- which is what the CA powers that be are promoting for the future?
Having varied sources of energy including oil seems prudent. And we have good sources of that in the US.
Yes Mrs. We do have the most oil in the world. I was surprised. Saudi Arabia?
In 2023 the executives of Exxon Mobile earned $30 billion while raising gas prices beyond the reach of middle and lower income classes. Their greed has set the cost of gas near $4 a gallon. Their new norm?
Nuclear fusion: The spent fuel rods are causing concern what to do with the millions of barrels of lethal waste that is currently being stored deep under Yucca Mountain. It decays for many decades. Today there are 91 nuclear plants in the US. One day fission may be replace by nuclear fusion. Hope that day comes soon.
Compressed Natural Gas, is a widely used as motor fuel in the world. It is the cleanest burning fuel, at the moment, in terms of NOx and soot (PM) emissions. Currently, there are 75 countries propelling their vehicles with CNG. The US is not high on that list.
You may recall in 8/23/21 in Beijing China the fuel smog caused by a spike in the use of coal and was so toxic that babies had to wear masks when outside, schools and parks were closed. Another deadly fossil fuel.
You are also right that electric vehicles have many issues. I think the largest is battery technology. They don’t go far and the need to recharge frequently. The supply of minerals used in batteries is in question as car and truck companies increase their EV manufacturing.
Thanks for your thoughts.
You are off in your prognostications . Do “executives” raise prices capriciously? Whenever dishonest journalism mentions a corporation with “record profits,” they never mention record taxation, and many armchair socialists, quick to invoke presumptions of greed, don’t even trouble themselves to know that profits are pre-tax and need to be planned large enough to stay in business, pay bills, maintain payroll, and sustain research and development. Every barrel of oil from the ground to the pump goes through seventeen taxation processes.
The energy/power efficiencies of EVs are way less than hydrocarbon vehicles. And the ignorance of liberal politicians have made it worse by sabotaging nuclear power, despite newer technology producing a tiny fraction of the waste of older plants, resulting in reliance on hydrocarbon plants (fossil fuel is a term for idiots). After the refining, electrical conversion process and multi-stage transmission process, the per gallon equivalent of gasoline fuel milage produced by hydrocarbons consumed for equivalent electrical production is about ten by ten by ten consumption of coal, a thousand cubic feet of coal.
And liberal politicians, in their infinite capacity to be intelligence challenged, are at war with natural gas.
The vatican continues inviting morally corrupt people to Rome. “Nothing to see here”?
Birds of a feather…
Brilliantly said, Sharon.
Nauseating.
Pathetic
I proudly displayed the American flag in front of my house for more than twenty years. After the 2020 election, I took it down, and I haven’t raised it since. I had to face the facts and acknowledge that we are America in name only. I think it’s time Catholics did the same. The Vatican is no longer remotely Christian and you might as well admit it. The bands still play and the marchers still march, but the poiēma is nowhere to be found. Life means nothing without it.
Punctuating the silliness of this is the notion that the Vatican will now cooperate with the pro-abortion UN to promote this stuff!
Donations to the Vatican fund these boondoggles, providing a megaphone for morally bankrupt bigwigs. How is it charity to pay for such activities?
I did not agree with climate lethality, but as a Catholic I will opt on the side of caution.
NASA: The vast majority of actively publishing climate scientists – 97 percent – agree that humans are causing global warming and climate change. Most of the leading science organizations around the world have issued public statements expressing this, including international and U.S. science academies, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and a whole host of reputable scientific bodies around the world.
There seems to be a major world-wide scientific effort to bring forward the message. I am no scientist, but I am a Catholic father, grandfather and a RHINO.
God gave us this marvelous finite home. We cannot ignore that our pollution is not a source of climate issues.
https://science.nasa.gov/climate-change/faq/do-scientists-agree-on-climate-change/
Don’t be deceived, Morgan.
Opt on the side of rationality. Do a little research.
Start with this website:
https://globalwarmingdeception.com/
Then proceed to my text that follows.
It’s disturbing to me that Bergoglio is weighing in on “climate change” when he clearly knows absolutely nothing about climate science.
Here are a few brief points about climate change that people should know.
• The earth’s climate is changing. Indeed, the climate has always changed. Look at a graph of the earth’s average temperature that goes back a few million years. It looks like a yo-yo. Yet life on earth has always adjusted. It’s what life does. Devastating the economies of entire nations in an impossible quest for an unchanging climate is needlessly imposing misery on humanity. Yet climate alarmists like Bergoglio — or Varmaloff — never even say how they came up with the idea that the earth’s climate is generally stable.
• A 1.5-degree warming of the climate in a century is hardly the “existential threat” that the warmists claim. Think of the people now living 60 miles south of your home. That’s what your hometown will be like after a century of warming. What is their lifestyle like with a climate that’s 1.5 degrees warmer than yours? Is their town an uninhabitable hell-on-earth? Are they bursting into flames atop thousand-foot-high sand dunes? No? You might want to think about that.
• Carbon dioxide is not a poison. It’s not a pollutant. It’s a necessity for life on earth. Indeed, carbon is the molecule of life. In eons past, the earth did experience significantly higher levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than we have now. The difference then? Plants thrived, food was plentiful and large mammals literally covered the earth, from pole to pole. In sum, more carbon dioxide equals more plants equals more animals equals a better, less stressful life for all. It’s hardly the “existential threat” that Bergoglio and the rest of the climate stooges claim.
• The “scientists” we keep hearing about who are sounding the climate alarm are meteorologists — weathermen. Their climate hysteria is based on computer programs that are not validated. They are closed loops with no way to account for all of the parameters that determine climate now, let alone decades from now. (Such as solar activity, the earth’s magnetic field, etc.) These are the same types of computer programs that predicted that the deaths from COVID-19 would be exponentially higher than what actually came to pass. Lowering all of humanity’s living standards based on such flimsy computer modeling is diabolical.
• Much is made about the “consensus” of scientists who warn about global warming in their publications. All this proves is that the left controls the print media as effectively as they control the broadcast media. Have you seen ‘Scientific American’ lately? No? You should take a look.
• There are indications that the sun may be entering a period of relative dormancy, as it did for a few hundred years, starting in the fourteenth century. The inactive sun meant less energy released, which led to the Little Ice Age in America and Europe. Rivers and canals in northern Europe froze, vineyards were destroyed, cereal production in Ireland was devastated, and famine hit France. (Interestingly, the cold also caused hardwood trees to grow denser and harder, leading to the remarkable tone of Stradivarius’ string instruments.)
I could go on and on. And on.
For example, about the indications that the earth’s magnetic field may now be in the process of flipping. This will affect how much of the sun’s energy strikes the earth. The problem is, the last time such a thing took place — an event known as the Laschamp excursion — was more than 40,000 years ago. So information on how earth’s climate was affected is hard to come by.
Anyway, it is quite clear that Bergoglio knows next to nothing about the climate. What’s surprising is that he has the audacity to offer such a definitive statement about a field that is totally unknown to him.
On second thought, maybe it was inevitable.
My dear fellow, how do you know that the Pope knows nothing about climate change? He is a very smart man with Jesuit training and discipline and has access to well versed academics; and as a head of state (his other hat) he has an obligation to speak out on secular matters. Apart from that, even if global warming IS a natural phenomena we do have an obligation to keep our planet clean and non toxic. All kinds of pollution cause serious health problems and we have a moral obligation to address them. “Drill, baby drill “ is not the answer. Big business should not dictate morality.
Nor should fanatics who will not tolerate other opinions and/or facts that dare to question.
Abortion is the most important environmental challenge we face. Women’s wombs are the most endangered sites on planet earth. There, humans are dying by the tens of thousands every day because of an assault on the wombs of women. There is no true environmentalism as long as abortion continues. Let’s do something about an environmental problem that’s immediate and easily remedied.
Thank you Deacon Edward Peitler for stating the obvious about abortion killing more humans than any other natural catastrophe. That is what is so sad and infuriating about this Papacy. Bergoglio destroyed JPII’s Institute for Marriage and Family and the JPII Pontifical Academy for Life by firing all of its qualified members who were all pro-life and replacing them with pro-abortion people.
The head of the Vatican’s Pontifical Sciences, Archbishop Sorondo invited population controllers to attend meetings at the Vatican, and Sorondo has called Communist China the best example of social justice! Maybe he should ask all of the Chinese women who were forcibly aborted by the Chinese government what they think of that diabolical statement.
Anyway, it is quite clear that brineyman knows next to nothing about the climate.
MICHAEL CRICHTON on climate change:
“Let’s think back to people in 1900 in, say, New York. If they worried about people in 2000, what would they worry about? Probably: Where would people get enough horses? And what would they do about all the horse manure? Horse pollution was bad in 1900; think how much worse it would be a century later, with so many more people riding horses?
“But of course, within a few years, nobody rode horses except for sport. And in 2000, France was getting 80% its power from an energy source that was unknown in 1900. Germany, Switzerland, Belgium and Japan were getting more than 30% from this source, unknown in 1900.
“Remember, people in 1900 didn’t know what an atom was. They didn’t know its structure. They also didn’t know what a radio was, or an airport, or a movie, or a television, or a computer, or a cell phone, or a jet, an antibiotic, a rocket, a satellite, an MRI, ICU, IUD, IBM, IRA, ERA, EEG, EPA, IRS, DOD, PCP, HTML, the Internet, interferon….
“Now. You tell me you can predict the world of 2100. Tell me it’s even worth thinking about. Our models just carry the present into the future. They’re bound to be wrong. Everybody who gives a moment’s thought knows it.”
Your comments are getting increasingly naive. You’re right about not being a scientist I have multiple degrees in physics and worked in the field for years. Dishonesty in science rivals academics, politics, and the practice of law. Do you think some identifiable group of human beings are immune from the sin of pride?
Could you at least refrain from using that silly unscientific word “model,” which is now being tossed around to impress the gullible to make them think scientists are generally deep thinkers when they’re not? Truth never changes because all truth is the reflection of the mind of God. Discovery exists, but we can only discover what God already knows and has always known. Atoms existed before Rutherford began his pioneering work in describing them.
And the propagandists of NASA are credible by what criteria exactly? And by what criteria do they judge other “propagandists/scientists” as reputable? There is no substantial evidence that manmade climate change exists by the analysis of scientists not looking for public adulation.
I stand with morganD. There is an elephant (no politics intended) in the room and we must look at it. It’s too big to go away and we must face the fact that we have not always been good stewards of our planet. Politics, business and greed (products of our common fallen nature) have brought problems that we must face and determine if we can and should do something about them. All sides must grow up and be willing to soberly consider ALL research and determine where we really stand and take necessary measures to address any REAL problems. All this mud slinging and name calling is very immature and counterproductive. Let’s at least have enough common decency to allow those who we disagree with as being sincere. After all it is possible to be sincerely wrong. It’s even possible that we may be wrong. Since we humans tend to exaggerate and misinterpret things, we must learn to put things in perspective and be more objective. In all things we are obligated, as Christians to show love and respect.
James, you sound like a sweet guy, but I fear you may be slightly naive.
Let me just ask you this.
Wherever did you get the idea that the “normal” state of the climate is stable?
Have you ever seen a graph depicting the temperatures on earth throughout its history? It looks like a yoy-yo.
Climate stability is a delusion.
And so the climate crisis is a delusion.
The Green New Poverty is a threat to humanity — and there’s absolutely no reason for it.
I make several points about the climate discussion in a post above. Here’s one more.
The scientific “consensus” includes only meteorologists — never the scientists who study the sun, heliologists.
And yet the sun is the source of the great majority of the earth’s heat.
The fact is, heliologists cannot reliably predict the sun’s solar output beyond about a decade into the future.
In fact, until the recent massive solar storm, the sun’s output has been somewhat reduced in recent years.
Until you see heliologists sounding the alarm about global warming, you can pretty much write it off as an issue.
I’ll own up to being naive, but I don’t think I am stupid or yet senile (although I’m going on 85😢) . I do however think that we must be seriously concerned about the footprints we are making on the environment. This is quite apart from the question of whether or not we are causing global warming. We know that we ARE causing serious pollution problems. Our oceans are full of junk which will not break down easily. Dangerous atomic waste is all over. Toxic gases are in the air etc. etc. Many on the political right have lumped all issues together and brand all environmentalists as leftist radicals. To be environmentally Globalist is not the same as being a politically globalist. Pollution does not stop at boarders. We can not be isolationists, we must work together as nations. Man Is the problem. The animals live and leave the planet as they found it with seemingly less brain power. We were given brains but don’t seem to use them very well. Yes, I own up to being naive and perhaps even stupid! God bless, my friend. 😇
Pollution & waste are one thing. Climate change narratives are another. You can do something constructive about pollution & waste that doesn’t involve a political agenda.
Conservatives should conserve nature & be stewards of God’s Creation. Cardinal Sarah said that Creation itself is a silent word of God. That’s good enough for me.
🙂
James, please. The oceans are NOT full of junk. Atomic waste is not everywhere. It is just such overstatement and hyperventilating that causes skepticism about the alarmist claims. Yes, there are problems. But remember, from the dawn of humanity human beings arrogantly thought they were the cause of every natural event, especially disasters … like not offering sacrifices to the right god, spraying deodorant into their armpits, shooting rockets into the sky (remember that, James? How often did we hear that in the 60’s?). As for our pope, he does have authority over bishops concealing sex abuse, the creep Rupnik, a church going off the rails in Germany … he should do his job first, and then he can “witness” to how everyone else isn’t doing theirs. And he doesn’t need to fly in celebrities and heads of state to get it done. Stop it with the photo ops and virtue signaling … by the way, I thought he famously said “Who am I to judge?”
As everyone knows, “Aliens Cause Global Warming,” just as Michael Chrichton said at Stanford 21 years ago:
https://stephenschneider.stanford.edu/Publications/PDF_Papers/Crichton2003.pdf
And besides consenting-scientists “picking our pockets,” we have “Vadigun-Clericalists-in-the-McCarrick-Cult,” led by the Pontiff Francis, doing the bidding of the Chinese Communist State and its Marxist-American-politicos like boy-wonder-Gavin-Newsome.
And isn’t it true that our galllant-un-Eminence-McCarrick, while he was doing his decades-long gig as a “false shepherd,” was traveling back-and-forth to the homicidal Chinese state (the world’s biggest polluter and yet somehow also the world’s biggest solar panel monetizer), somehow managed by his “independent financial means” to afford his frequent flying back-and-forth to Peking for some 20 years, first discharging the many duties that we know all NJ Bishops are bound to do, and somehow “getting stuck” with the same Chinese Communist State junkets, despite lying his way into the Archbishop of Washington job, with the help of the utterly corrupt, Chinese Communist toadies of the “Vadigun-Secretariat-of-State.”
McCarrick, Newsome, the Pontiff Francis, three peas in the same phony pod, and all three capable of switching jobs, without it making any difference.
“There’s no such thing as “consensus science.” (Michael Chrichton)
https://www.aei.org/carpe-diem/michael-crichton-explains-why-there-is-no-such-thing-as-consensus-science/
Planet Earth is thirsting for tender care, love, and respect. It’s time for fellow-mortals to do their bit.
I trust that you will not be driving a car in the future nor taking any form of transportation that relies on fossil fuel. Because if you do, you would be ignoring your own admonition to the rest of us which would be hypocritical.
I think that line was written by Secretary Xi, and farmed out for political consumption.
Yes, there is some change in climate; human activities definitely play a part in it. Yet I do not believe it is the Pope’s business. His business is the change of the spiritual climate.
Alas, what is going on now is a fulfilment of the prophecy of Vladimir Soloviev’s ‘A short story of the Antichrist’. I urge all Roman Catholics to read it. It is a wonderful piece of work and very instructive. Here is the test: http://www.wittenberg2017.us/uploads/3/0/1/6/30164961/a_short_tale_of_the_anti-christ_-_by_vladimir_soloviev.pdf
(Vladimir Soloviev was an Eastern Orthodox religious philosopher, visionary, and philocatholic – some argue he became a Roman Catholic.)
But Anna, it IS the Pope’s business. He is both the head of State (the Vatican) and head of Church. This is confusing to many people. It’s not an ideal situation and perhaps won’t last much longer, but it is the way things are now and he may as well use the bully pulpit as long as he can. We should be happy that he has some say and credibility in secular matters. Very few secular leaders have ANY moral credibility these days. Think about how much St. John Paul did!
James, the sooner the Vatican is denied recognition as a temporal entity, the better for the Church’s mission.
Isn’t any Bishop’s main job to save souls in all he does?
When years past on one round trip from NY to the SW I was startled that the top of majestic stratovolcano Mt Taylor NM, was shaved off by uranium excavation, water in many places throughout the SW both federal property and reservation areas was contaminated by excessive mining [even oil conglomerates Philips, Exxon with their vast wealth turned to include mining], that former pristine trout fishing brooks and lakes [including upstate NY] were affected I knew then it was a moral issue that had to be addressed. And it’s our Catholic Church that addresses moral issues.
Insofar as global warming the evidence is clear, whether it’s naturally cyclic or not. Industrial air pollutants, besides cows breaking wind [if it’s an issue are we going to neglect humans] causes a dramatic increase in UV rays and its effect on humans.
“The link between air pollution, UV irradiation and skin carcinogenesis has been demonstrated within a large number of epidemiological studies. Many have shown the detrimental effect that UV irradiation can have on human health as well as the long-term damage which can result from air pollution, the European ESCAPE project being a notable example. In total, at present around 2800 different chemical substances are systematically released into the air. This paper looks at the hazardous impact of air pollution and UV” (National Library of Medicine). What impressed me were the incredibly long lines of retired veterans and their families who moved to the SW showing up at the SW VA that I served for carcinoma treatment.
Many will say climate is a distraction that belongs attention elsewhere because personal morality is more important. Agreed that the latter holds priority. Although it’s also said that many of us can also chew gum and walk at the same time.
Bergoglio is pushing all the right butyons of the transhumanist globalists elite. He recently endorsed the blessing of homosexual couples. Now he is fully aboard the global warming wagon. Of course he does not condemn China, whose abuse of the environment is far worse than anything done in the West; just as he kept silent about what China has done with the Catholic Church there, or with Falon Gong or with the Uyghurs. It is less risky to attack the U.S.
Please read this letter to the California government by 1600 actual scientists supported by 16 pages of data
https://californiaglobe.com/articles/no-climate-crisis-says-coalition-of-1600-actual-scientists/
NO Climate Crisis Says Coalition of 1600 Actual Scientists
The United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is ‘one of the worst sources of dangerous misinformation’
By Katy Grimes, May 13, 2024 2:55 am
Excellent link, Oscar!
Those “1,600 scientists” certainly sound like a “consensus”
to me!
LOLOL!
Like I said. Global warming is a delusion.
Carbon is beneficial to life.
Bergoglio knows nothing about climate science.
The earth was warmer which is why Greenland got it’s name. It is now an icy expanse. The warming climate may once again bring it back to a green tree filled country:
“During 1981, researchers removed a huge tube of ice from the middle of a glacier in the Southern region of Greenland. The glacier was taken from a site called Dye 3, and it was more than a mile long — offering an incredible insight into Greenland’s history.
According to the scientists who examined the ice, the pattern of dirt, rock, and soil within was difficult to analyze at first. Lower layers of ice had been disrupted by the formation of new glacier.
Fortunately, later, DNA was distracted from the previously ignored bottom of the glacier, revealing some interesting information on the history of the country.
According to the data, Greenland was green. Not only was the country rich with grass and fields, but forests too. Biologists say Greenland may have been home to similar forests we see throughout Scandinavia today.
Scandinavia’s stunning scenery is one of the things which contributes to the happiness and health of the people within.
The team of analysts responsible for examining the ice say DNA was retrieved from yew, pine, spruce, and alder trees. The scientists also discovered species of insects ranging from spiders to butterflies.
According to the group, the icy discovery marked the first example of evidence that southern Greenland was once a highly forested place. Indeed, experts believe based on the trees found, Greenland must have reached at least 10 degrees Celsius in Summer. ”
From Scandification: Why Is Greenland Called Greenland?