Vatican Urges Religions To Support UN's Sustainable Development Goals

If you are like me, sometimes things happen that make you wonder what kind of an alternative universe you are living in.

In science fiction, an alternative (or parallel) universe (or more specifically, continued interaction between the parallel universe and our own) serves as a central plot point, establishing a realm unconstrained by realism; it is often a realm of another dimension creating a mixed-up alternate reality. But in this case, truth is even stranger than fiction.

Last month, the PARL department of the Seventh-day Adventist Church (under Ganoune Diop) helped to organize a meeting at the United Nations Secretariat for the purpose of urging religions to come together in support of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (known as Agenda 2030). ChurchMouse reported on it. This month, the Vatican is, wait for it… urging religions to come together in support of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. In what manner of twisted reality do you have the Seventh-day Adventist Church AND the Roman Catholic Church both supporting a global leftist agenda — urging all religions of the world to join in a multicultural handclasp which mandates climate action and gender equality?

The Vatican

At a press conference Tuesday morning, Cardinal Peter Turkson, prefect of the Vatican department for the Promotion of Integral Human Development, spoke of the “urgency of the implementation of the 17 goals determined by more than 190 nations.”

In preparation for the upcoming Vatican conference titled “Religions and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Listening to the cry of the earth and of the poor,” Cardinal Turkson said that the meeting is about “marshalling the moral force of religion behind the implementation of the SDG goals.”

We are “truly concerned to develop an ecology capable of remedying the damage we have done,” the cardinal stated, which will “unleash the power of love to lead the transformation that the word needs to respond to the suffering of the earth.”

“We welcome the shared goals that the SDGs have given voice and purpose to; and purpose is what motivates us to change our lifestyles, our way of producing, trading, consuming and wasting,” the Ghanaian cardinal said.

This includes attention to climate change, he said, since “humanity has less than a decade to embark on a systemic transformation of our consumption and production systems so as to keep global warming within the range of 1 degree.”

Last October, Pope Francis endorsed the U.N.’s Agenda for Sustainable Development and hailed the text as “a rallying cry to wake us from the slumber that often paralyzes and inhibits us.”

The U.N. agenda is a “plan of action” that goes well beyond addressing world hunger, however, and encompasses “17 Sustainable Development Goals and 169 targets,” some of which directly contradict the Catholic Church’s core beliefs regarding human life. So attractive is the prospect of global control via Climate Change regulations, that the Vatican is apparently willing to toss their beliefs on abortion under the bus for it.

“We are committed to ensuring universal access to sexual and reproductive health-care services, including for family planning, information and education,” the agenda declares.

The document also decries the uneven progress in achieving Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), noting that some of the MDGs remain off-track, “in particular those related to… reproductive health.”

The United Nations has been one of the most powerful forces behind a worldwide push for legalized abortion, under its social justice umbrellas of “reproductive health” and “gender equality.”

In the years leading up to Ireland’s 2018 abortion referendum, for example, the United Nations repeatedly attacked Ireland for its pro-life laws, employing its international muscle to demand that the predominantly Catholic nation repeal the Eighth Amendment to its constitution that banned the procedure. But that’s not all.

Pope Francis Calls For a Conversion Experience to Support Agenda 2030

One thing that helps to motivate people is to convince them that their actions or decisions are moral. Human nature being what it is, a modern-day indulgence is just as effective as a medieval indulgence in replacing one’s sense of guilt with a sense of moral accomplishment.

Pope Francis said Friday (March 8) that global development goals need to be supported by ethical objectives stemming from personal conversion and recognition of one’s failures.

“The economic and political objectives must be supported by ethical objectives, which presuppose a change of attitude, the Bible would say a change of heart,” the pope said March 8 at the Vatican’s Clementine Hall.

“Already St. John Paul II spoke about the need to ‘encourage and sustain an ecological conversion,’” he said, referencing a 2001 catechesis of one of his predecessors. “Religions have a key role to play here.”

Francis emphasized that “for a correct transition to a sustainable future, it is necessary to recognize ‘one’s own mistakes, sins, vices or negligence,’ ‘to repent of heart, to change from within,’ to be reconciled with others, with creation and with the Creator,” as he wrote in his 2015 encyclical on the environment, Laudato si’.

“Indeed, we should all commit ourselves to promoting and implementing the development goals that are supported by our deepest religious and ethical values,” he urged. “Human development is not only an economic question or concerns only experts, but is above all a vocation, a call that requires a free and responsible response.”

The pope addressed Vatican officials, religious representatives, and members of international organizations participating in a March 7-9 conference on “Religions and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Listening to the cry of the earth and the poor.”

The conference was hosted by the Dicastery for the Promotion of Integral Human Development and the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue.

The SDGs are 17 global goals covering social and economic development issues, including poverty, hunger, education, gender equality, energy, and the environment. The goals were set by the United Nations General Assembly in 2015 as a part of what is called the “2030 Agenda” resolution.

In his speech to conference participants on Friday, Pope Francis praised the SDGs and 2030 Agenda as “a great step forward for global dialogue, in the sign of a necessary ‘new universal solidarity.’”

Urging people to look for concrete answers and commitments, he noted he was pleased conference participants were seeking the input of religious persons in the discussion of the implementation of sustainable development objectives.

“In the case of religious people, we need to open the treasures of our best traditions with regard to a true and respectful dialogue on how to build the future of our planet,” he said.

There you have it. The objective is bringing all religions to support the United Nations 2030 Agenda. The SDA PARL director (Ganoune Diop), the Vatican and Pope Francis are simultaneously promoting this agenda.

The Pope is conferring morality upon the Agenda, calling for a new kind of conversion experience to support Agenda 2030. What does that mean? It means if you resist, you could be a sinner.

So is this an alternative (parallel) universe? Not really. It’s the Great Controversy coming into sharper and sharper focus.

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Further Reading

http://www.fulcrum7.com/news/2015/12/25/seventh-day-adventists-weigh-in-on-global-warming
http://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2019/03/08/190308d.html
http://www.fulcrum7.com/blog/2016/4/5/seventh-day-adventists-and-climate-change
http://www.fulcrum7.com/blog/2016/5/14/how-green-thou-art
http://www.fulcrum7.com/news/2016/9/1/pope-francis-global-warming-is-a-sin