Laudato si': Pope Francis Communicates about Climate Change
Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato si’ received considerable attention as an official Catholic document reframing climate change mitigation as a moral obligation shared by the global population. Prominent US liberals anticipated that religious conservatives would be cross-pressured to change their attitudes and beliefs, whereas prominent US conservatives questioned papal authority to speak on scientific issues such as climate change. In collaboration with the Annenberg Public Policy Center, we examined whether, and if so, to what extent, the Pope's encyclical influenced the public.