How Everybody Will Misread the Encyclical on the Environment

…and how it should be read:

Yesterday I heard a story on NPR about the Pope’s forthcoming encyclical on the environment. While the “conservative” who was interviewed spoke all about “prudential” decisions and the non-expertise of the Church on this issue, the “liberal” insisted that our individual decisions are ultimately social, and have impact far beyond the mere consent and free choice of the individual.

How refreshing it would be to hear the “conservative” recognize the validity of this argument in the economic sphere, and for the “liberal” to realize that our sexual lives also constitute an “ecology,” and thus that the same argument applies to marriage, abortion and sexuality. – Patrick Deneen

Meanwhile, OSV attempts to speak sanity to the pre-emptive strikers in the Francis-hating brigades of Truly True Real Catholics who are laboring to get everybody to ignore the encyclical before they even know what it says. Because they are so docile to the Magisterium and such better Catholics than the common herd, doncha know.