"Pope Francis, who pledged on the day of his installation as pontiff to make the environment a priority, is drafting a highly anticipated encyclical on ecology and climate change.

Environmentalists are thrilled by the prospect of a rock-star pope putting his moral weight behind efforts to curb global warming. Francis said last week he wanted the document to be released in time to be read before the next round of U.N. climate treaty talks in Paris at the end of the year.

But skeptics of global warming are irate that Francis is taking up the cause. Several of the critics have accused him of using Catholicism to cloak a radical environmental agenda."

Rachel Zoll reports for the Associated Press January 19, 2015. [2]