So now the Pope is going green. Or at least that’s what he’d like for us to believe.

Speaking to a group of 200,000 people gathered in Sydney for the Roman Catholic Church’s youth festival, the Pope told followers that the world’s natural resources are being squandered by “insatiable consumption.”

Some excerpts from his chat:

“The concerns for nonviolence, sustainable development, justice and peace, and care for our environment are of vital importance for humanity.”

“Perhaps reluctantly we come to acknowledge that there are also scars which mark the surface of our Earth: erosion, deforestation, the squandering of the world’s mineral and ocean resources in order to fuel an insatiable consumption.”

True dat, Mr. Pope. But tell me please how your latest missive squares with Catholicism’s prohibition on contraception. After all, “insatiable consumption” can be blamed on a booming world population, something you seem to be all for.

Can anyone say cognitive dissonance?

If the Pope believes that people are using too many resources and leaving the world dangerously in peril, then perhaps he should quit telling his faithful to have more children.

Of course, in the good old U.S. of A.  we’re popping out babies like there’s no tomorrow. 4.3 million babies were born in the US in 2007, a number that hadn’t been seen since the 1950’s. Insatiable consumption? I guess we missed the memo.

The Pope should be proud…slightly conflicted perhaps, but proud nonetheless.

(cross posted at Bring It On!)