Insert your own "Is the Pope socialist?" joke here.

The Pope socialist? No way I hear you saying.  But now that he's on board with climate change and he's about to tell us what the impact on the poor has been, is, and will be, ought to convince you.

The 192-page document is Pope Francis’ first major teaching letter on climate change and its effects on the planet’s poor. Hailed by some as the “pope of the poor,” Francis’ linkage of environmental and economic issues puts the Vatican out front on a closely watched topic.

Ugh. I remember when the church was all about saving souls. Climate change is part of a socialist agenda. I'm also old enough to remember going out of my house in the 1970s and smelling the pollution, or swimming in lakes covered in places with a film of gasoline.  That hell-in-a-hand-basket trip got detoured. Things are better. Not perfect, but better.

But the Pope is about to tell us why climate change, man-made mind you, is the scourge of the planet. And it all is going to boil down to irresponsible, evil corporations no doubt.  Oh, I don't expect him to say it.  I expect him to lead his flock far enough down the path for them to infer it themselves.

Socialism and God don't mix:

“The whole world is lying in the power of the wicked one.”

Getting the church mixed up in that seems contra-indicated.