Abortion and death penalty come before climate change for church, Vatican official says
Papal adviser Cardinal Peter Turkson says personal issues of life and death still come first despite pope’s call for climate action.
Claims humans can control climate: 'It’s something essentially that we can control, we can rein in, whose impacts and consequences we can master.'
Turkson, who heads the pontifical council for justice and peace, said global challenges elevated by Francis – such as climate change and justice – would still take second place in importance to individual life-and-death issues such as abortion and the death penalty.
“I would not put them on the same level. I would not associate them at all. Climate change is something that has happened to the world around us,” he told a small group of reporters in a telephone interview. “It’s something essentially that we can control, we can rein in, whose impacts and consequences we can master.”
