--- title: Pope Francis's Encyclical: Jeb Bush's Response to Is Hogwash description: Bush is wrong: The church must get involved in politics canonical: https://time.com/3924287/pope-francis-climate-change/ author: Christopher Hale article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-06-17T17:14:19.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:58:52.885Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Jeb Bush's Response to Pope Francis's Climate Change Encyclical Is Hogwash og:description: Bush is wrong: The church must get involved in politics og:url: https://time.com/3924287/pope-francis-climate-change/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7fb1051137c74a6b/698854ed35ba6f1ae5c0dc8e/pope-francis2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4000 og:image:height: 2250 og:image:alt: Pope Francis waves to the faithful as he arrives in St. Peter's Square for a meeting with the Roman Diocesans on June 14, 2015 in Vatican City. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Jeb Bush's Response to Pope Francis's Climate Change Encyclical Is Hogwash twitter:description: Bush is wrong: The church must get involved in politics twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7fb1051137c74a6b/698854ed35ba6f1ae5c0dc8e/pope-francis2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Jeb Bush's Response to Pope Francis's Climate Change Encyclical Is Hogwash > Sponsored content. 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Inside TIME is the newsletter where TIME's Editor-in-Chief explains cover selection and the editorial reasoning behind major stories. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who is the editor of TIME? Sam Jacobs is TIME's Editor-in-Chief. He writes Inside TIME, a twice-weekly newsletter about the newsroom's reporting and editorial decisions. #### Is Inside TIME free? Yes. Inside TIME is a free newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. ## Video: 2013 Person of the Year: Pope Francis Reimagines the Papacy [Watch (HLS stream): 2013 Person of the Year: Pope Francis Reimagines the Papacy](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/aYRnrfUV.m3u8) (3:30)  _Published 2013-12-11. From his comments on gays to his penchant for Twitter, Pope Francis's every move has garnered strong reactions from the world media._ by [Christopher Hale](https://time.com/author/christopher-j-hale-2/) ## Christopher Hale Jun 17, 2015 5:14 PM UTC  Pope Francis waves to the faithful as he arrives in St. Peter's Square for a meeting with the Roman Diocesans on June 14, 2015 in Vatican City. Pope Francis waves to the faithful as he arrives in St. Peter's Square for a meeting with the Roman Diocesans on June 14, 2015 in Vatican City.Franco Origlia—Getty Images by [Christopher Hale](https://time.com/author/christopher-j-hale-2/) ## Christopher Hale Jun 17, 2015 5:14 PM UTC Here we go again. Two weeks after Rick Santorum said [Pope Francis should “leave science to scientists,”](http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2015/06/04/rick-santorum-wants-pope-francis-to-leave-science-to-scientists-only-when-its-convenient-for-him/) another Catholic Republican presidential candidate has pushed back on Pope Francis’s upcoming June 18 encyclical letter on climate change. It only took former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, who announced his presidential campaign Monday, one day on the campaign trail to go after Francis on this issue. “I hope I’m not going to get castigated for saying this by my priest back home,” [Bush said about Francis’s encyclical.](http://www.politico.com/story/2015/06/jeb-bush-knocks-pope-on-climate-change-push-119084.html) “But I don’t get economic policy from my bishops or my cardinals or my pope.” A devout Catholic, Bush said religion “ought to be about making us better as people, less about things \[that\] end up getting into the political realm.” This is absolute hogwash, and Bush knows it. “As a public leader, one’s faith should guide you,” [Bush said in 2009.](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/18/us/politics/jeb-bush-20-years-after-conversion-is-guided-by-his-catholic-faith.html) “In the United States, many people think you need to keep your faith, put it in a security box, if you’re an elected official — put it in a safety deposit box until you finish your service as a public servant and then you can go get it back. I never felt that was appropriate.” While governor of Florida, Bush credited his Catholic faith for guiding his decision-making on several policy issues, most notably on child welfare. “You hear people say, ‘I don’t want to impose my faith,’” [Bush told a Florida Catholic newspaper](http://www.orlandodiocese.org/images/stories/ministries%5Foffices/communications/florida%5Fcatholic/2007/20070112.pdf) shortly after leaving office. “Well, it’s not an imposition of faith. It’s who you are.” So what’s changed since then? The most obvious answer is Pope Francis. He has [called on the church to become less “obsessed” with abortion, same-sex marriage, and contraception.](http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/20/world/europe/pope-bluntly-faults-churchs-focus-on-gays-and-abortion.html?pagewanted=all&%5Fr=0) Perhaps this doesn’t sit well with Bush, Santorum, and other candidates who may find themselves politically at odds with other issues at the heart of the Church’s social mission, including comprehensive [immigration](http://www.christiantoday.com/article/immigration.the.economy.and.other.issues.pope.francis.may.raise.in.his.address.to.the.us.congress/53325.htm) reform, abolishing the [death penalty](http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1404377.htm), and ensuring [workers’ rights](http://ncronline.org/news/politics/what-francis-would-say-obama-let-workers-unionize) to organize. Bush is wrong: The church must get involved in politics. In fact, a “good Catholic,” [Pope Francis has said,](http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/pope-calls-faithful-to-pray-participate-actively-in-politics/) “meddles in politics.” We don’t do this to elect a candidate or advance a party, but because politics affects human flourishing, and we’re called by God to defend the dignity of every woman, man, and child. Bush, Santorum, and other conservatives will allow faith to affect their politics when the church defends the dignity of the child in the womb. They must allow their faith to do the same when the church fights against the rampant consumerism, air pollution, and environmental exploitation. If they do so, they will respond to God’s ancient request to be good stewards of all that God has given us: clear air, fresh water, and fruits of the harvest. Bush, Santorum and other GOP presidential candidates still have time before the Iowa caucuses to switch course and stand with Pope Francis and the Catholic Church in fighting global climate change. Bush’s [political history](http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2015/03/27/bush-parts-ways-with-potential-gop-rivals-on-environmental-issues/70541674/) in particular suggests he might be willing to do so. If he does, he has the rare chance of being a modern American political hero by risking his political future for the sake of his nation’s future. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3924287/pope-francis-climate-change/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3924287/pope-francis-climate-change/"},"headline":"Jeb Bush's Response to Pope Francis's Climate Change Encyclical Is Hogwash","datePublished":"2015-06-17T17:14:19.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:58:52.885Z","description":"Bush is wrong: The church must get involved in politics","url":"https://time.com/3924287/pope-francis-climate-change/","keywords":["Religion"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7fb1051137c74a6b/698854ed35ba6f1ae5c0dc8e/pope-francis2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Christopher Hale","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/christopher-j-hale-2/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7fb1051137c74a6b/698854ed35ba6f1ae5c0dc8e/pope-francis2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Pope Francis waves to the faithful as he arrives in St. Peter's Square for a meeting with the Roman Diocesans on June 14, 2015 in Vatican City.","caption":"Pope Francis waves to the faithful as he arrives in St. Peter's Square for a meeting with the Roman Diocesans on June 14, 2015 in Vatican City.","creditText":"Franco Origlia—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3924287/pope-francis-climate-change/","name":"Jeb Bush's Response to Pope Francis's Climate Change Encyclical Is Hogwash"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"2013 Person of the Year: Pope Francis Reimagines the Papacy","description":"From his comments on gays to his penchant for Twitter, Pope Francis's every move has garnered strong reactions from the world media.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/aYRnrfUV/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2013-12-11T12:42:10.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/aYRnrfUV.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3924287/pope-francis-climate-change/","duration":"PT3M30S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3924287/pope-francis-climate-change/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```