The pope's impassioned speech on global warming ... that wasn't

British tabloids and other less-than-reputable news organizations claimed last year, early in the papal visit planning process, that Pope Benedict would use his speech at the United Nations to "deliver a powerful warning over climate change." At the time of these rumors, I published a lengthy rebuttal of their accuracy and likelihood.

It's worth repeating some of the claims that were circulated:

The Pope is expected to use his first address to the United Nations to deliver a powerful warning over climate change in a move to adopt protection of the environment as a "moral" cause for the Catholic Church and its billion-strong following....

....It will act as the centrepiece of a US visit scheduled for next April – the first by Benedict XVI, and the first Papal visit since 1999 – and round off an environmental blitz at the Vatican, in which the Pope has personally led moves to emphasise green issues based on the belief that climate change is affecting the poorest people on the planet, and the principle that believers have a duty to "protect creation".

Today, now that the speech has been delivered and made available, I went looking for the pope's "centrepiece" to complete the Vatican's "environmental blitz" making it a "moral cause for the Catholic Church." This is what I found:

"....questions of security, development goals, reduction of local and global inequalities, protection of the environment, of resources and of the climate, require all international leaders to act jointly and to show a readiness to work in good faith, respecting the law, and promoting solidarity with the weakest regions of the planet. I am thinking especially of those countries in Africa and other parts of the world which remain on the margins of authentic integral development, and are therefore at risk of experiencing only the negative effects of globalization."

"... international action to preserve the environment and to protect various forms of life on earth must not only guarantee a rational use of technology and science, but must also rediscover the authentic image of creation. This never requires a choice to be made between science and ethics: rather it is a question of adopting a scientific method that is truly respectful of ethical imperatives."

Note what the pope is actually worried about: environmental and climate protection are one among many moral imperatives facing the international community, with his eye especially on regions of Africa that suffer underdevelopment (as opposed to the "overdevelopment" of industrialized nations).

Furthermore, this entire project must possess a "rational use of technology and science, but must also rediscover the authentic image of creation", which necessarily implies a union of "science and ethics." The authentic image of creation which the Church reveals is always connected to the idea that creation is meant to serve the human person, who receives the fruits of creation as a reward for his labor.

Of course, abuses of the environment, which may have ill-effects on the climate, are against the image of creation, but this is so because the ultimate meaning of creation is tied up with the image of man who is the steward and custodian of creation. That's why the pope talks about "ethics," because it is only human persons who are bound to act "ethically" and see that their actions do not impinge upon the rights of the global community.

If the UK tabloids were looking for their "moral cause" - they've found it: preservation of the image of creation by those who are made in the image of God on behalf of those made in the image of God. People first!