Video resurfaces 'anti-fracking pope' question

The anti-fracking pope debate has resurfaced.

Way back in November 2013, social media circulated a photo of Pope Francis posing with an anti-fracking T-shirt. The image emerged from a meeting with a group of Argentine environmental activists, who brought several shirts -- one read, in Spanish, “No to fracking”, while another stated, also in Spanish, “Water is worth more than gold” – with them in their visit with the pope.

One of the Argentines present at the meeting was Fernando Solanas, the director of a 2013 documentary titled "La Guerra del Fracking" (“The Fracking War”).

Now as Pope Francis eco-encyclical mayhem revs up ahead of the teaching document’s release -- the latest reports have it out before the summer -- video footage of the Argentines’ meeting with their countryman pope has begun recirculating.

The nine-minute video, titled “Pope Francis and the environmental defense,” first appeared on YouTube in December 2013. While it doesn’t provide irrefutable evidence that Francis has aligned with opponents of the controversial drilling technique -- he never discusses fracking directly in the clip -- the footage does provide a glimpse of a candid pope talking about environmental issues and the importance of and dignity associated with work.  

In narrating the short film, Solanas said that the purpose of the audience was to talk about environmental crimes. After arriving to the meeting alone, the pope began to bless rosaries, T-shirts and other items placed on a table. Among them was the “Water is worth more than gold” shirt, which Francis held up for a photo.

 “You are happy with this,” he said in Spanish, according to the video’s translation, which at times is rough.

“Super,” one of the Argentines responded, adding that it would mean a great deal to the people of Famatina, Argentina, whose protests in 2012 led to the suspension of a gold mining project near the Nevados de Famatina mountain peak, the region’s primary source of drinking water.

“Someone will get upset,” Francis replied.

After an hour-long private audience with Solanas, the pope, who requested he be called “Fr. George” (as in Jorge Bergoglio), agreed to address a few topics on camera.

On the conflict over water, Francis said “We cannot waste water or contaminate it, can we? Therefore, we must take care of God’s creations.” He explained that humans are born with ignorance and that through work, they develop culture.

“That is the experience of our human genius, of human work, transforming ignorance into culture, through science, art, work man is the author of culture. So, what happens when man is no longer a builder? He takes over culture, and uses it, not for improvement and the good of humankind but for selfish reasons,” he said, according to the video’s translation.

The pope offered open pit mining as an example as man using people for his own good and re-creating ignorance in the world: “That is the second form of ignorance we must be careful of. Because then we create and destroy.”

Repeating common tenants of his pontificate, Francis said that both youth and the elderly are essential for moving the world forward. As for the present, he said “we are living in such an unjust international system, where money is God at the center, we are living in a disposable culture, where we discard the old and the young ones,” citing Europe’s high youth unemployment rates.

“A whole young generation that has no job. So they [lose] that sense of dignity that work brings them,” an animated Francis said.

“What I would like to say to our youth is … take care of one another, to be aware of this and do not allow to be overlooked. This disposable culture must not be allowed to continue so we must achieve a more inclusive culture. They must take awareness that together with the old ones, they are people’s future. A world where both young and old are not being [taken] care of has no future,” the pope said.

[Brian Roewe is an NCR staff writer. Follow him on Twitter: @BrianRoewe.]

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