Can the Pope be cooler than Mick Jagger?

Mike Childs

26 July 2013

The new Pope - Pope  Francis- held a big sermon on Copacabana Beach in Brazil last night, on World Youth Day. According to the BBC one million people attended - which puts the Rolling Stones gig at Glastonbury to shame. In his address he urged people to stand-up against inequality and reject the allure of money, power and pleasure (presumably by which he meant hedonistic pleasure rather than all pleasure). Top notch stuff.

But does the Catholic Church really care passionately about the future for young people? I spotted a couple of major omissions. I'd love to know what you think of them, please do comment below.

In our Big Ideas Change the World project we are already identifying changes that are needed if we are to achieve wellbeing for people and the planet, changes that the Pope opposes. Here are two examples.

Nature's bounty

Nature's bounty is one of the topics we're looking at in the project. It clear that we are assailing the ability of nature to provide for us and other species through climate change, biodiversity loss, soil degradation, ozone pollution and more. So much so that our ability to provide wellbeing for all will especially be sorely tested in the 2050-2100 time period when climate change is likely to bite.

Undoubtedly humans have the ability to turn this around, and we have identified three of the key means to do so. But we've also identified some other important changes, including the need to achieve a peak in global population this century - ideally before or around 2050.

To achieve this will require, amongst other things, women's access to family planning. This is something the Catholic Church still opposes. If the Catholic Church accepted the right of women to access family planning services,  the likelihood that young people could achieve wellbeing would increase and the wellbeing of the planet would be maintained for future generations.

Women's empowerment

We have just kicked off our research on women's empowerment topic. Topic seven in our Big Ideas Change the World research project. Our hypothesis is that empowering women to have equality in all spheres of life will substantially increase the likelihood of achieving sustainability. Some research suggests that women in power give higher priority to social goal than their male counterparts.

Obviously, to us at least, the converse is also true, without empowering women sustainability is impossible.

But in politics and businesses there are few women at the top level. Glass ceilings are the norm. In most religions these ceilings aren't glass, they're reinforced concrete.

If the Pope really wants to address the long-term future and wellbeing of young people, regardless of gender or sexual orientation,  he should have committed the Catholic Church to achieve full equality within his life-time,

Cooler than Mick Jagger

It is great to hear the Pope calling for greater economic equality in a world where a few have billions and billions have virtually nothing. But economic inequalities are just one part of a wider agenda. Inequalities may be reducing in parts of the world, but at a glacial pace. That pace needs quickening. If the Pope were to do that he'd surely be cooler than Mick Jagger?

 What do you think? Please comment below.

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