By Eric J. Lyman | USA TODAY
VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis on Thursday threw the weight of the Catholic Church behind a new appeal to combat climate change, saying the future of humanity is at stake and dismissing those who deny the planet is getting warmer.
Francis unequivocally lined the Catholic Church up on the side of the environment with the release of church doctrine that condemned polluters and governments alike for failing to do enough to address the problem.
In the first encyclical written entirely under his papacy, Francis said humans have a moral obligation to protect the environment and that doing so is a key part of the challenge of lifting the world’s least fortunate from poverty.
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