Pope Leo XIV blesses 20,000 year-old Greenland ice block

Pope Leo XIV has stirred up some controversy this week, though most of it is in the minds of his critics and not in the substance of what he’s said or done.

Pope Leo on Abortion and the Consistent Ethic of Life

On Tuesday, Pope Leo was asked by an EWTN reporter about the decision of Cardinal Archbishop Blase Cupich of Chicago to recognize retiring Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) with a Lifetime Achievement Award for his work on immigration, and the criticism Cardinal Cupich has received for choosing to honor a politician who has been so fiercely pro-abortion. CatholicVote started a petition opposing Durbin’s receipt of the award and collected 40,000 signatures in less than a week. At least ten bishops also made public their opposition to Cardinal Cupich’s decision to honor Sen. Durbin, including Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Springfield, IL, Durbin’s home town. Bishop Paprocki forbids Sen. Durbin from receiving Holy Communion in his home diocese, though the senator has since moved to Chicago, where Cardinal Cupich is now his bishop and where he worships and receives Holy Communion.

What Pope Leo said was partly terribly disappointing and partly a simple reiteration of Catholic Social Teaching. The terribly disappointing part was his opening statement that, “I am not terribly familiar with the particular case. I think it’s important to look at the overall work that a senator has done during, if I’m not mistaken, in 40 years of service in the United States Senate,” (emphasis added). Respectfully, when the Holy Father said, “I am not terribly familiar with the particular case,” maybe he should have stopped there. I understand Pope Leo’s sentiment in wanting to consider a man’s entire career. But when part of that career has included such vociferous and public support for an act that is intrinsically evil, all the while insisting on one’s Catholic credentials, then that says enough about a man’s career that we can judge, at the least, that he ought not be honored by the Catholic Church. There is a tendancy, even among Catholic prelates, I’m afraid, to be lazy and think that, because all life issues are part of the Seamless Garment ethic, then all life issues are morally equal. They are not. One may prudentially support or oppose a particular immigration policy, so long as support or opposition recognizes and respects the dignity of the human person. But one may never support abortion. When it comes to abortion, prudential judgment doesn’t apply, because it is the wilfull destruction of innocent human life, and that is always an intrinsic evil.

What Pope Leo said next is what has U. S. conservatives in an uproar: “Someone who says ‘I’m against abortion but says I am in favor of the death penalty’ is not really pro-life. Someone who says that ‘I’m against abortion, but I’m in agreement with the inhuman treatment of immigrants in the United States,’ I don’t know if that’s pro-life.” The problem here is not that Pope Leo is saying anything new or outrageous, much less anything that contradicts Catholic Social Teaching. The problem is that too many American Catholics form their faith according to their politics, rather than forming their politics according to their faith. What Pope Leo says here is completely in line with Catholic teaching. You cannot pick and choose your life issues, anymore than you can pick and choose your faith issues. But what Pope Leo says here is also heresy in the minds and hearts of too many American conservatives. Not all, mind you.

According to a 2023 Gallup poll, 81% of Republicans support the death penalty. While, according to a 2024 Pew Research Center poll, 57% of Republicans believe abortion should be illegal all or most of the time. What that means is that a large percentage of Republicans who are pro-life on abortion are also in favor of the death penalty. This is the inconsistency that Pope Leo is calling out. Of course, it’s also inconsistent to be pro-abortion and anti-death penalty. Where 68% of Democrats are opposed to capital punishment, fully 85% believe abortion should be legal all or most of the time. This, too, is inconsistent. I wish that point would be made more often, but it seems it’s the pro-lifers who are expected to be consistent on these two life issues, while opponants of capital punishment, not so much.

What also has U. S. conservatives upset is the pope implying that U. S. policy on immigration is inhumane. While the Trump administration, as evidenced by Karoline Leavett’s response to Pope Leo’s remarks (see link above), believe that they are simply enforcing U. S. immigration laws, doing so in a way that tears families apart and dislodges people from the only country they’ve known is not, by most reasonable judgments, humane. No one has a problem with the Trump administration catching and deporting immigrants with a violent criminal record, or who are members of cartels or criminal gangs. But it must be acknowledged that the federal government is also rounding up and deporting immigrants who have been here for years and have no violent criminal record, have been working hard, and contributing to their communities. This is not humane.

Finally, Pope Leo called for mutual respect and working together to apply the Church’s Social Teaching meaningfully in the future: “I don’t know if anyone has all the truth on them but I would ask first and foremost that there be greater respect for one another and that we search together both as human beings, in that case as American citizens or citizens of the state of Illinois, as well as Catholics to say we need to, you know, really look closely at all of these ethical issues and to find the way forward in this church. Church teaching on each one of those issues is very clear.” Yes, Church teaching on each one of these issues is very clear. We ought to give more devotion to that Church teaching rather than to our partisan political loyalties.  

Pope Leo Blesses Block of Ice at Climate Conference

Another controversy that exploded on social media this week is Pope Leo’s blessing of a block of ice at the Raising Hope for Climate Justice International Conference at Castel Gandolfo. During a prayer service, Pope Leo placed his hand on a block of 20,000 year-old Greenland ice (which is pretty cool, if you think about it – no pun intended) during what was called the “blessing of the waters.” Pope Leo prayed, “Lord of life, bless this water, may it awaken our hearts, cleanse our indifference, soothe our grief, and renew our hope, through Christ our Lord.” He then blessed those gathered for the service.

For some reason, critics have called this a pagan-like ritual. Why? The Catholic Church has been blessing water since its beginning. And, while it is unusual to bless a block of ice, let’s recall that the pope is the Church’s primary liturgist. If he wants to bless a block of ice, he can blasted well bless a block of ice!

Matt Walsh, conservative commentator, wrote: “Horrific. The whole thing. Pope Leo blesses a block of ice and then stands there while these communist freaks do some kind of weird pagan Earth worshipping hippy ritual. The leader of the Catholic Church shouldn’t be anywhere near this nonsense. What the hell are we doing here.” Okay, for starters, calling the people who participated in this prayer service “communist freaks” is a slur. Walsh should know that insult is the argument of the lazy. Either make a constructive criticism or keep your yap shut. Second, there was no “kind of weird pagan Earth worshipping hippy ritual.” Has Walsh forgotten that God created the Earth and made man the stewards of the Earth (Gen 1:26-28)? Is Walsh’s idea of stewardship to rape the Earth of all she has and leave it trashed? Yeah, sure, the wavy action with the blue fabric, I’m sure meant to represent the waters of the Earth, was kind of liturgical dancy (which I hate!). But there was nothing about it that even hinted at Earth worship. Pope Leo prayed “through Christ our Lord.” What, is that pagan now?

Either copying from Walsh or from the same memo, Ian Miles Cheong, who is a Malaysian conservative commentator on Ameican politics who has never been to America, wrote on X: “The Pope blesses a slab of ice and then just lingers there while a bunch of communist weirdos prance around in some pagan Earth-worship ritual. The head of the Catholic Church has no business being anywhere near this circus.” Cheong has written that he was baptized Catholic but no longer considers himself Catholic, and in an X post in December 2024 wrote, “Really starting to hate Catholicism.” So, what does he care what the pope is up to? The same is true for Fr. Federico Palma, a traditionalist priest who belongs to something called the Roman Catholic Institute, which rejects the validity of Vatican II, regarding it as heresy. Palma also criticized Pope Leo for participating in the prayer service, writing: “The Vatican II religion touched a new low. Leo XIV in one week did perhaps more damage to the Catholic Faith than Francis in a couple of years. First, he undermines the pro-life cause, secondly, he promotes ecumenism and religious indifferentism, and now he performs this truly esoteric ‘blessing’ of water. What a disgrace.” Again, what is esoteric about blessing water? And why is Newsweek getting commentary on this matter from Palma, who has no connection with the Catholic Church? That’s like asking a Jew to comment on the practice of Muslims to pray facing Mecca. Why should he care? But, apparently, Palma does care. He should care for his own house.

In my opinion, except for Palma (who hates all things Vatican II), these critics don’t care if Pope Leo blesses a block of ice, or if participants in the prayer service wave a blue fabric. All of this wailing and gnashing of teeth is really about the pope’s support for efforts to alleviate the effects of climate change. Now, you and I may have our own opinions about climate change. My opinion is this, and I’ve said it before: yes, the climate is changing, but I’m not expecting the global disasters everyone’s been warning us about for five decades that have never materialized. I think Bjorn Lomborg offers the best thinking on the matter, and I encourage you to check out what he has to say. Frankly, and respectfully, I think the pope is overwrought about the matter. We know that climate change is real. But we also know that we can manage if we’re smart and not panicking, or influenced by people who peddle false solutions. Fossil fuels are here to stay, so best to invest in technologies that will make them as clean as possible.

Having said that, Pope Leo is certainly welcome to his own take on climate change, and I’m not the Catholic to criticize him for it, much less ridicule him for it, much much less accuse him of Earth worshipping paganism. The Earth was made by God, and He made it good. The Earth is our home, and it’s the only one we have (for the forseeable future?). The Earth is our responsibility, dominion over which was given to us by God to care for His creation. There’s nothing pagan about that.

Let the earth bless the Lord, praise and exalt him above all forever.

Mountains and hills, bless the Lord; praise and exalt him above all forever.

Everything growing on earth, bless the Lord; praise and exalt him above all forever.

You springs, bless the Lord; praise and exalt him above all forever.

Seas and rivers, bless the Lord; praise and exalt him above all forever.

You sea monsters and all water creatures, bless the Lord; praise and exalt him above all forever.

All you birds of the air, bless the Lord; praise and exalt him above all forever.

All you beasts, wild and tame, bless the Lord; praise and exalt him above all forever.

Daniel 3:74-81

Be Christ for all. Bring Christ to all. See Christ in all.