Last week, in an interview with CBS News, Pope Francis called skeptics of massive power and wealth grabs by Malthusian Western elites “climate deniers.” That echoes the manipulative rhetoric of the American left, which smears those who point to election fraud as “election deniers.” The intent there is clear — to associate political enemies with disgraceful Holocaust deniers, who in Europe can end up in prison.

Don’t put it past the left to persecute opponents of electric cars and land-grabs from farmers the way it sought to quarantine COVID vaccine skeptics and (in places like Canada and Finland) imprison opponents of the LGBT agenda.

Pope Francis fed into the agenda of those censors and tyrants, flippantly dismissing legitimate questions about vastly coercive laws based on speculative science:

“There are people who are foolish, and even foolish if they show you them research. They don’t believe it…. They don’t understand the situation or because of their interests, but climate change exists,'” the pope said.

For all his scandals and dubious decisions, Pope Francis still wields influence. His declarations on the “climate crisis” get quoted and used as cudgels. They’re blunt instruments, dulled by his incurious consumption of whatever gruel gets regurgitated and spat into his beak by our elites. Just check out his’ long list of ill-informed, presumptuous declarations on the topic of our ever-changing climate.