Pope Francis is here in the US this week and will make a historic address to Congress on Thursday.
Some conservative Catholics say Francis is meddling in American politics with his recent call for action on climate change.
Meanwhile, for the faithful in Western coal country, Francis is raising moral questions.
Our Inside Energy Reporter Dan Boyce has the story.
Donna Zofcin’s (Zoff-sin) husband was injured in a coal mining accident in Kentucky.
ZOFCIN: “He got paralyzed.”
For a time anyway, Doctor’s helped him walk again.
Then he died a few years later, in 1992.
Still, the walls of her humble Cheyenne Wyoming home are an homage to coal.
ZOFCIN: “This is some of the mining gear that they used.”
The 78 year old is pointing to a framed watercolor print of equipment.
ZOFCIN: “Their mining cap, piece of coal.”
She followed her daughter out here to Wyoming, the country’s biggest coal state.
So that theme still runs through her life.
And so too, does her catholic faith.
ZOFCIN: “Oh, we’re very devout.”
(AMBI MASS)
ZOFCIN: “And we go to church every Sunday.”
(AMBI MASS)
We’re in Zofcin’s church in Cheyenne.
Sun streams brilliantly through the Cathedral’s ornate stained glass.
ETIENNE: “God is indeed the creator of all things.”
Back in June, Wyoming’s State Bishop, Paul Etienne, delivered a special homily on the Pope’s headline grabbing encyclical on the environment, the biggest papal statement ever on the subject.
A challenging and bold teaching, Etienne says, which lines out humanity’s responsibility to be good stewards of the earth.
ETIENNE: “so that it can continue to provide for future generations.”
The document acknowledges the scientific consensus of man-made climate change and call for aggressively addressing its core causes--primarily the use of fossil fuels.
FADE OUT CHURCH
Etienne says the document may be disturbing for many people in his state, and he says he’s getting questions from his congregation.
ETIENNE: “Is the pope saying that it’s sinful to burn these fuels?”
And he says no.
“No, it’s not sinful. But he’s saying this is not sustainable.”
That balance is a tough line to ride here in states like Wyoming, where coal is the economic backbone.
So, a lot of people in Cheyenne’s church end up sounding like Paul Phillips.
PHILLIPS: “I’ll speak out of both sides of my mouth.”
He works for a heavy equipment company, and a good portion of their business is in the coal fields.
So, on one side he says yes, we do need to look for alternative sources of energy.
PHILLIPS: “But on the other side of my mouth I think that’s going to be a long time coming.”
And in the meantime, he believes these resources are a gift from God, to be used as cleanly as possible.
Conservative catholic politicians, their stances on the encyclical have ranged largely from avoiding comment to accusing the pope of inappropriately wading into American politics.
Now, the church is no stranger to taking stands on controversial issues--take abortion for instance.
And Francis is actually not the first pope to bring up human caused climate change. Both John Paul II and Benedict XVI urged action to limit its effects.
Despite that.
KRASKA: “In the past, I wouldn’t say the church has been the go-to organization for climate issues or environmental issues.”
That’s Jenny Kraska with the Colorado Catholic Conference, which lobbies the state legislature on behalf of the church.
She says it’s different now. With this popular pope, and the special theological weight given to encyclicals.
She expects her organization will pay more attention to environmental legislation.
KRASKA: “ To be involved and have an opinion on these issues as they come up.
And as for the conservative Catholics politicians who deny climate change?
KRASKA: “I don’t know it puts them in a difficult moral quandary. I think it gives them something to think about.”
Yet, for other Catholics, like Donna Zofcin in Cheyenne,
BOYCE: “Does it leave you with, difficult questions, maybe difficult moral questions.”
ZOFCIN: “It does, it does.”
She agrees with the pope that humanity needs to take better care of the earth, to help the most vulnerable.
Yet, she’s vulnerable herself.
The coal company has been paying her a pension ever since her husband died.
So her opinion on fossil fuels doesn’t waver.
“ZOFCIN: “You have to see the way people live and how they live and what coal means to them before you can say, well we need to do away with it.”
As much as she loves the pope,
she says he has his opinion on this subject.
ZOFCIN: “And I have mine.”
For Inside Energy, I’m Dan Boyce.
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