While the climate change content in Pope Francis’s new encyclical has been heavily covered by Univision, Telemundo and MundoFox, other core teachings in the encyclical, on such bedrock issues as abortion and gender, continue to be entirely ignored by these networks.
Specifically, none of the recent stories on Univision, Telemundo nor Mundo Fox mentioned Pope Francis’ insistence that “since everything is interrelated, concern for the protection of nature is also incompatible with the justification of abortion.”
The Pope’s latest, explicit words against the “reproductive health” and gender ideology agendas of the left have also so far been ignored by these networks’ principal national news programs.
Instead, reporters such as MundoFox’s Peggy Carranza emphasized that “political analysts say this will put in a difficult position Catholics who question climate change being caused by humans, like Republican presidential candidates Rick Santorum, Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush” and that it is expected that the Pope will take his message to Congress during his upcoming visit to the United States, “which could make conservatives uncomfortable.”
The sole political analyst cited by Carranza was Hunter College’s Carlos Vargas Ramos, who drove the narrative from the left, and whose quotes were featured three times. To be sure, the irony of Vargas Ramos’ critique should not be lost.
CARLOS VARGAS RAMOS, HUNTER COLLEGE: Well, what he is going to do is exhort that leadership of the Congress to take positions that are more consonant with the teachings of the Church.
If the Pope does indeed exhort the leadership of the Congress to take positions that are more consonant with the teachings of the Church, you can also be sure high on the agenda of His Holiness will be a call to pass such concrete measures as the Pain Capable Unborn Child Act currently before the United States Senate. The legislation would protect the lives of unborn children who have reached 20 weeks fetal age (22 weeks of pregnancy), an age at which it is widely accepted that these babies are capable of experiencing pain.
Key statements on life and gender by Pope Francis in his encyclical included :
● “Since everything is interrelated, concern for the protection of nature is also incompatible with the justification of abortion. How can we genuinely teach the importance of concern for other vulnerable beings, however troublesome or inconvenient they may be, if we fail to protect a human embryo, even when its presence is uncomfortable and creates difficulties?”
● “When we fail to acknowledge as part of reality the worth of a poor person, a human embryo, a person with disabilities – to offer just a few examples – it becomes difficult to hear the cry of nature itself; everything is connected.”
● “There is a tendency to justify transgressing all boundaries when experimentation is carried out on living human embryos. We forget that the inalienable worth of a human being transcends his or her degree of development.”
● “The acceptance of our bodies as God’s gift is vital for welcoming and accepting the entire world as a gift from the Father and our common home, whereas thinking that we enjoy absolute power over our own bodies turns, often subtly, into thinking that we enjoy absolute power over creation…Also, valuing one’s own body in its femininity or masculinity is necessary.
Relevant portions of the referenced newscast appear below:
Noticias Mundo Fox 06/18/2015 5:30pm
PEGGY CARRANZA, REPORTER: Political analysts say this will put in a difficult position Catholics who question climate change being caused by humans, like Republican presidential candidates Rick Santorum, Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush...it is expected Francisco will bring his message to Congress, which could make conservatives uncomfortable.
CARLOS VARGAS RAMOS, HUNTER COLLEGE: Well, what he is going to do is exhort that leadership of the Congress to take positions that are more consonant with the teachings of the Church.
