Dominic Lawson writes in the Daily Mail:
Pope Francis’s new encyclical is in stark contrast to the style of his predecessor. While Pope Benedict’s works were in Latin, entirely spiritual in tone, and written by the man himself (a great scholar), his Argentine successor has produced something impossible to render in a classical language.
In fitting with its theme — saving the planet from man’s depredations — it is, for much of its great length, indistinguishable from any number of United Nations environmental briefings. In fact it is acknowledged to be the work of a series of pontifical committees.
To save you the trouble of ploughing through it, I offer a new take on the Lord’s Prayer, designed to encapsulate the Holy Father’s message:
Our Gaia, Who art in danger,
Sustainable be thy name,
Thy renewable energy resources come,
Thy Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s will be done
On Earth as it is in the upper atmosphere
Give us this day our daily organic ciabatta
Forgive us our carbon emissions
Though we can’t forgive those multinationals who emit against us
Lead us not into excessive plane travel
Deliver us from genetically modified crops
For thine is the moral high ground
The onshore wind farms and the subsidies
For as long as the taxes can be raised. Amen.
H/t The GWPF