https://www.newsweek.com/pope-leo-blessing-ice-sparks-anger-pagan-earth-worship-ritual-10817883

Pope blesses a block of Ice at a Climate Justice gathering.

I'll make two disclaimers here.

1. I am not Catholic
2. I'm politically conservative

But this isn't primarily about politics. It's about Idol worship and blurring the lines between Pagan practice and actual Christianity. When I first heard this was about this on a podcast it felt wrong. And the. I googled the event and the above article was posted so I guess I'm not the only one And from what I gather the more I dig in the worse it gets. The clips I heard didn't mention anything about Christ and absolutely none of the speakers I heard mentioned Christ or the Holy Spirit.

It's pretty clear to me that the people in attendance were there to worship at the altar of Earth, Gaia, or whatever you want to call it.

Curious about the opinions of you guys, particularly our Catholic brothers and sisters. Why would the Pope participate in this?

And please, for the love don't let this devolve into a Catholic vs Protestant match

fair enough. and appreciate the clarification.

at my former church, we did things like "bless the backpacks" and I think they even did blessing of the pets at one service but it didbt feel like this.

I guess the reason this drove me crazy is that this clearly isn't an idol to the Pope but I'm afraid it is to the people who were in attendance. It appears to me as a subtle head nod to their Gods, not ours.

after the blessing of the backpacks nobody went home and treated that backpack like God. But here i can very much see this as an instrument of worship by climate activists.

lobopride said:

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Climate change is a religion unto itself for some true believers.

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that's kind of my point. there were a lot of people there. and they weren't there for Jesus

TresPuertas said:

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The clips I heard didn't mention anything about Christ and absolutely none of the speakers I heard mentioned Christ or the Holy Spirit.

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I think you answered your own concerns here.

1 Corinthians 2:1-5
And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

1 Corinthians 10:31
So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

Colossians 3:16-17
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

When we bought our first home, we invited the priest from our parish out to… bless our home. He did this in a very similar way, said some words and sprinkled holy water (not frozen) and then we had some snacks!

Here are some words from the Pope himself about this event posted on X on Wednesday:
"We are one family, with the same Father, who makes the sun to rise and sends rain on everyone (Mt 5:45). We live on the same planet, and must care for it together. I renew my heartfelt appeal for unity around integral ecology and for peace!"

Zobel said:

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No idol. Not idolatry.

Blessing stuff isn't worshipping it.

Traditional Christians bless the waters every year at theophany and have for centuries.

Anthropogenic climate change is dumb.

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Just because its effects are unpredictable and you don't understand it, that doesn't make it dumb, or non-existent. I'm reading an interesting book right now on Chernobyl. Hiding the data doesn't make it go away.

Amazon.com: Manual for Survival: An Environmental History of the Chernobyl Disaster: 9780393357769: Brown, Kate: Books

Here's an interesting read on ocean acidification. The chemistry is pretty straight-forward. The impacts, not so much. However, to say that human produced CO2 has no effect is, well, dumb.

Ocean Acidification | Smithsonian Ocean

Zobel said:

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No idol. Not idolatry.

Blessing stuff isn't worshipping it.

Traditional Christians bless the waters every year at theophany and have for centuries.

Anthropogenic climate change is dumb.

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And certainly better to be blessing an ice cube than to be blessing Putin's war, though...or perhaps you would disagree.

" The clips I heard didn't mention anything about Christ"

Pope Leo mentions Jesus by name.

PabloSerna said:

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" The clips I heard didn't mention anything about Christ"

Pope Leo mentions Jesus by name.

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not the pope. all the climate change speakers. they weren't there for the Jesus. They used the Pope

Looks like Zobel took the softball question and smashed it out of the park on the first reply.

But to expand the discussion a bit, what exactly is idolatry?

The ancient church and ancient peoples understood idolatry as specifically taking something man made, praying over it and inviting a god (little g) to come inhabit it. The world at large all the way up to the 1600s understood the physical world to be tied to the spiritual world. It wasn't just merely wood/brass/gold/etc object made in memoriam of a god, but an actual host of a god.

These gods were revered and your relationship to them was more in line with an extortion racket. They were lords over humanity but they also want something from humanity. You trap the genie in the bottle per se, but it comes at a cost. They get what they want - worship from humans and you get what you want - fertility/rain/good crop harvest. But its not even a nice transaction, they are vindictive, harsh, cruel, they hate humanity. The worship always culminates in the growth of sin, because these are demons we are talking about. They can and have whispered secret knowledge, visions, powers, etc to hook humanity even harder.

This is why God when the temple was built was adamant in saying that, God will not be bound by the hands of man (idols were bound) but he will come participate if the following things happen.

Idolatry strikes at the heart of "what is the relationship of man back to God?" What can you give the God of Gods? The fallen, little gods are happy to trade material success for your worship because they A) hate man, B) hate God. But the God of Gods? What can you give a God that isn't bound by anything? You ever wrack your brain trying to get a gift for a picky mother at Christmas? This God created everything here, your material possessions out of context are trivial to God.

And this is the rub, God wants your love and obedience. A correct orientation of your free will aligning with His so you can flourish and grow in Theosis. Not a transaction of material wealth for your fleeting allegiance. This also means that there is suffering in the name of God, because the relationship of God isn't transactional that you receive material pleasures and lack of suffering for worshiping him.

This is also why its so eye rolling to hear nearly every protestant pastor get idolatry wrong. From any vice being declare idolatrous, any fun innocuous thing you enjoy becoming a risk of being an idol as well. I've heard playing the guitar as being an idol because you can love and devote your time to guitar more than your time to God. Fair critique, but not idolatry - words have meaning.

And this also gets into why venerating Mary or the other saints isn't idolatrous either. When I pray for the saints to petition God on my behalf, I'm not praying for the saints to enact some grace as a transaction where the saint showcases some power separate from God like demons can. There's no hook. I'm asking for the saint to petition my cause to God, help me be more Christ like, and grow in Theosis. God has distributed his authority, he hears the petitions from the righteous, all while He still knows and observes everything.

TresPuertas said:

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PabloSerna said:

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" The clips I heard didn't mention anything about Christ"

Pope Leo mentions Jesus by name.

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not the pope. all the climate change speakers. they weren't there for the Jesus. They used the Pope

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Or the Pope used them to work in some evangelism for people who could use it, although he was clearly invited.

Is this one of those I don't want Christianity involved in the political things I don't like situations?

Is it idolatry when you bless your food?