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The first draft of Pope Francis’s encyclical on the environment has been completed, but the Pope says he needs to be certain about the science used.
Speaking with reporters on his plane flight back from Korea, Pope Francis was asked by a German journalist about the upcoming encyclical.
The Pope replied that he had spoken a lot with Cardinal Peter Turkson, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, and others on the topic.
“I have asked Cardinal Turkson to bring together all the contributions,” the Pope said.
Four days before leaving for Korea, Francis received the first draft from Cardinal Turkson, and it was one third larger than Evangelii Gaudium, the apostolic exhortation given last year.
“Now, it’s not an easy issue because on the protection of creation and the study of human ecology, you can speak with sure certainty up to a certain point then come the scientific hypotheses some of which are rather sure, others aren’t,” Pope Francis said.
“In an encyclical like this that must be magisterial, it must only go forward on certainties, things that are sure.
“If the Pope says that the centre of the universe is the earth and not the sun, he errs because he says something scientific that isn’t right. That’s also true here,” he said.
Pope Francis said more study and calculation is needed, and he forecast that the final encyclical would be somewhat smaller than the first draft.
“But going to the essence is what we can affirm with certainty,” the Pope said.
“But, you could say in the notes, in the footnotes, that this is a hypotheses and this and this.
“To say it as an information, but not in the body of the encyclical, which is doctrinal and needs to be certain.”
Earlier this year, Franciscan superiors reported Vatican sources saying the encyclical would probably come early in 2015.
Also on the plane, Pope Francis told reporters that murdered Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero may be beatified as a martyr if theologians agree.
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