The Papal Prayer for Our Planet
—October 1, 2025
Let solar panels gleam in leas.
_Let turbines whir and spin.
Subdue the rise of roiling seas.
_Make exhaled breath a sin.
Bring Gaia slayers to their knees
_Each time they taint the air.
Lord, bless defrosting blocks of ice
_And pat a polar bear.
Position peril posed to toads
_Above all human needs.
Urge eco-geeks to shut down roads.
_Let meat-freaks suck on seeds.
Bedim the light in bright abodes.
_Make heat and air-con rare.
Lord, bless distressed and sweaty ice
_And hug a polar bear.
Ban crusty loaves of daily bread
_Baked brown by fossil fuel—
Let hungry mobs eat grubs instead.
_Swap motors for a mule.
Stop spreading peace, go peddle dread
_To wake the unaware.
Lord, bless the damned and dying ice
_And kiss a polar bear.
Amen. / A-them. / A-they.
Susan Jarvis Bryant is a poet originally from the U.K., now living on the Gulf Coast of Texas.
I love this Susan. Every word! Make exhaled breath a sin, indeed!
Thank you, Russel! I’m glad you’ve picked up on our toxic emissions polluting the air – how dare we!
The Pope blessed a 20,000 year old piece of ice from Greenland. He said we must all help in the battle against Climate Change. The Canadians have already started Climate Lockdowns.
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/international-news/canada/climate-lockdowns-in-canada/
Fight Climate Change! Embrace Agenda 30!
Get ready for Climate Change. If you are Godly you will shut up, lock down and trust the billionaires. Do they have the Climate Vax ready to go?
As a fan of our glorious green orb, how reassuring it is to know that those making billions from the sky falling in have our best interests at heart. Thank you, Mike, for easing my troubled mind. I’m so happy, I could kiss a polar bear!
You never fail to amaze me with your speed-poetry, Susan! I can’t imagine how you come up with these up to the minute news reports in rhyme and meter — almost before we’ve heard about the latest crazy happenings. You could have a daily paper called something like The Satiric Times. Thanks for the humorous relief!
Cynthia, thank you very much indeed! I just love your idea of “The Satiric Times” – there is certainly much inspiration for reams of poetry on a daily basis. I simply can’t ignore the increasingly insidious idiocy sweeping the globe at breakneck speed. The day a block of ice is blessed by the Pope (no less) as a symbolic reminder of our sinful ways – ways that demand castigation and taxation to the point of fuel poverty – my Muse explodes into action.
Susan, my hat is (and all hats should be) off to you! What a sharp, satiric piece — by writing these sarcastic words for Prevost’s mouth, you totally explode the pretentious buffoonery of a stage-managed stunt. Blessing a chunk of ice… what’s next? Excommunicating all V-8 engines?
I knew that the election of an American prelate was a big mistake.
Joe, “pretentious buffoonery of a stage-managed stunt” says it all. And anyone who thinks it’s any more than that has fallen for the new religion that has nothing to do with the Way and the Truth and the Life. The thought of “Excommunicating all V-8 engines” is so hilariously absurd, I think we may well be hearing this in a future sermon. Thank you very much indeed!
Hilarious poem, Susan! The spirit of Jonathan Swift lives in these lines– which unite Swift’s bitingly satirical wit with the sheer joy in playing with words that one finds in poets like Ogden Nash or Edward Lear. I love your use of neologisms like “Gaia slayers” and the laugh out loud eccentricity of some of your word pictures, such “meat-freaks” being forced to “suck on seeds”, “distressed and sweaty ice” being properly blessed as polar bears receive divine consolation through being patted, hugged and kissed. And you have concluded the whole with an “Amen” that is as senstive to gender diversity as any on the “woke” left could desire.
Martin, I am thrilled this poem made you laugh and thank you wholeheartedly for your wonderful observations. What can one do but laugh? To take this Vatican villainy seriously, would make one complicit in a wicked lie that will continue to line the overflowing coffers of the filthy rich at the expense of the increasingly poor. Martin, thank you!
I’ve actually been praying that Rome would work towards reintegrating the Amish into full Communion with the Church, so I really like your idea of swapping “motors for mules.” I don’t believe in human-induced climate change, but sometimes I do think we would all be happier if the entire power-grid instantaneously went down.
Reid, I like your comment. Thank you! You say much I agree with. I believe we have become far too dependent on modern technology to our detriment. What I don’t agree with is having fuel poverty forced upon us in the name of care for the planet, when it means the complete opposite. The Pope is pushing a money-making scam that has nothing to do with saving the planet and everything to do with greed – the redistribution of wealth to line the luxurious lairs of the beef-eating, Champagne-swilling, jet-setting fat cats.
I’m not going to pretend like I know all of the deepest and darkest intentions of the global committee of do-gooders or whoever put this escapade (art-exhibit?) on, but I’m not sure the Pope is pushing a money-making scam just by blessing a block of ice that had already broke off from some iceberg in Greenland. I think, like most high-profile people, he gets a lot of words put in his mouth. Would I have rather him gone to Greenland, hiked the glacier, and blessed the iceberg while planting a gigantic crucifix at the top—probably; but I’m not sure that’s going to be the first place he travels either.
I don’t think having a land-ethic is inherently scandalous for a Pope—or the Church. Pope Leo the 13 inspired the Catholic Land Movement with his encyclical Rerum Navarum in the late nineteenth century, encouraging a return to family life and agricultural simplicity, warning against the excesses of both socialism and capitalism. The first chapter of the Bible espouses a land-ethic; and further on in Leviticus we read how the Hebrews were to “rest” their fields every 7 years, an agricultural practice more or less shucked today by Big Ag. Being good stewards of our environment is a must, even for conservative Christians. How we go about it is another story.
Furthermore, we also have to remember that like St. Justin Martyr said: “Everything good belongs to us.” Everything the left has that is good belongs to us. We have seen that in the popularity of RFK and in Elon Musk. We are now the party of true health, true wellness, and the environment. My only qualm with the Pope getting solar panels is that they aren’t Tesla shingles.
With that being said, the Pope has been purposefully ambiguous on how we are to actually care for our planet. He has no business catering to the left or right, conservative or liberal. He should be first and foremost Catholic, which encompasses all that is good. In some of his statements from this summit he makes it clear that true conversion starts in the heart and with care for each and every creature, including and especially the poor in our communities.
Reid, thank you! You have given me much to think about. I do, however, refuse to give the pope a pass because: “I think, like most high-profile people, he gets a lot of words put in his mouth” – the ONLY words coming from the pope’s mouth should be inspired by God not the modern-day “do-gooders”. And surely The Word is far more powerful than this costly and absurd symbolic act of blessing a block of ice. I know I sound harsh, and as I said at the beginning of this comment, thank you for giving me points to consider – I will be doing just that.
… I also happen to believe based on much research and plenty of evidence (I’ve followed the money and the trail of failed predictions) that “Climate Change” and the Green New Deal is the new religion. The pope should be encouraging us to keep our focus on the one true God. We should be worshipping our Creator not His creation.
No problem, Susan. Trust me, I see where you’re coming from. I think I’m just trying to give him the benefit of the doubt; and giving him the filial respect and defense I would my dad, for instance, when he does something incredibly dorky or obnoxious. Time will tell. I’ll keep praying and I’m sure you’ll keep impressing me with your poetry. Best.
Reid, thank you for this. I am especially pleased you enjoy my poetry. And thank you too for making me think… long and hard – something I love to do. I have come to this conclusion… for now. I am always open to rethinking any conclusion I draw if I find compelling evidence that contradicts my stance. This is how I see it now:
The pope isn’t promoting justice, which focuses on individual rights afforded us by God, he is promoting “social” justice, which replaces the individual with the collective to create social institutions that ensure fairness for historically marginalized or disadvantaged groups (chosen by man) supporting economic, political, and social equality – an “equality” decided by the powers that be; an “equality” that has nothing to do with God and everything to do with “fairness” as humankind sees fit.
One only has to read “Kings” to see where this leads. The very Bible the pope speaks from reflects a strong caution against trusting purely human-led systems without accounting for human sinfulness and failure. We have only to look to our own history to see that placing full trust in human governance has not gone well. Yet, the pope continues to promote Agenda 2030, which relies upon ideals unsupported by biblical insights into human nature and the history of leadership. “What could possibly go wrong?” many are asking. I say, our history and the Bible tell us exactly what goes wrong… and the pope is selling a lie. Surely those who seek and speak the Truth have one primary job – to seek and speak the Truth, and that means NOT giving this misguided pope a pass.
Reid, thank you for your views. It’s great to have a platform to discuss them – a rare gift these days.
Yes the SCP is great. Evan is a hero. I’m sure we would be banned in other parts of the world or on different platforms. We need some sort of notification system though for when someone replies to a comment because I am just seeing this!
Hey Reid, at the foot of each Poem Posting there are two options available for you:
■ Notify me of follow-up comments by email.
■ Notify me of new posts by email.
Just click the first one!
Since the website has been updated by Evan and Anton, it works perfectly!
You’ll never miss a comment again.
O sweet! How did I miss that? Hahaha. Thank you.
Ahem!
Your pen—
A ten.
Andrew –
Thank you!
WOOHOO!!
This is how I prefer to get my news about world events, thank you Susan, you’ve done it again. Between your poetry, the Babylon Bee, and We Lie to You News, I feel like I can keep up with the latest developments and identify as well informed.
Yael, I’m thrilled to be up there with your other excellent news-source choices. I am in good company and pleased to bring a grin to grim events. Thank you very much for always bring a smile to my pages!
Susan, I join all the others in praising your satirical mind, your great poetic gift, and fabulous humor that included patting, hugging, and kissing a polar bear. The image stuck in my mind of the pope doing this like a circus performer sticking his head inside the jaws of such a beast.
Roy, you have made me laugh out loud with your hilarious comment. I will never be able to look at the pope without your image springing to mind… and for that I thank you! I would much rather be laughing than crying when I am confronted with his next political stunt.
Susan, my bookshelves are overflowing; but there’ll be room for your next published collection. Make it soon.
Thank you so much, Martin! What a lovely comment. I have been dragging my feet on the new book front… your words have inspired me.
Susan, given the ‘never-should-‘ve-done-it’ papal appointment that motivated you to whip up this wonderful little gem, the RNC should put you to work in their campaign department given your enviable prowess as a political satirist. Another great scorcher – 🙂
Mark, you have made me smile. Thank you very much for your appreciation and your suggestion – it sounds like my ideal job with plenty of material to keep me in employment for decades to come.
Susan, your lovely prayer has me thinking… which is always dangerous, as you well know. It seems to me that the ice, which was from a glacier in Nuup Kangerlua fjord in Greenland, should have been left in situ. Why must people always change nature???
That ice had to be broken from the glacier, hauled aboard a ship, packaged and then sent to Castel Gandolfo, 5,000 kilometers away, either by ship or air, presumably refrigerated.
It must have cost 8,000 to 10,000 bucks.
How much fuel? How much manpower? What was the carbon cost of that asinine stunt! How many baby Polar Bears will die because the Pope deprived them of life-sustaining ice?
How dreadful! Your comment lays bare the unbearable plight of the baby bears all down to the bare-faced cheek of a glacier-stealing pope. It’s unbelievable… and dare I say it… unbearable!
I know it’s bad for the bears… but consider the seals, Susan!
In fact it appears that Evan has documented the death of a seal in the photo above. Poor baby seal was slaughtered for want of one blessèd piece of ice to hide behind.
This “Pope” (I prescind from the issue of whether he is a valid pontiff or not) is just Bergoglio with a better cosmetician. You are quite correct about how much this dumb stunt must have cost, and what a huge “carbon footprint” it has left. Sort of like Greta Thunberg getting fifty-plus gas and diesel powered yachts to sail on a pointless photo-op in the Mediterranean.
I wonder why the insanity of this isn’t obvious to all.
All this performative piety has gotten out of hand.
It’s turning into some kind of competition… who is the holiest?
Susan, I want so much to dive into the amazing craftsmanship of this poem but may not get the chance for a couple of days. In case I don’t, I just want to chime in on the praise for this excellent satire — it’s hilarious and penetrating and infuriating, right down to the papal pronouns. I too wonder how much money and wasted fuel went into the performance art stunt of schlepping a piece of ice from Greenland to Italy. Leftists are such children.
Brian, your comment is appreciative, supportive, insightful, and (above all) sane! All I could have hoped for. Thank you very much indeed!
My comments have been light-hearted but my concerns are serious.
I was baptized Catholic as a baby. I was an altar boy. I left the Church when I left home. I knew too much to stay.
I suppose that “knowing too much” really means that I was done with the Church/Politics mashup.
I am done with “performative piety” and “virtue signaling” in every single venue. It makes my skin crawl.
The blessing of the ice is politics, performative piety, stagecraft and idiocy all thrown together because someone listened to the wrong people. Or, more likely, because that is just what is expected now. God help us all.
Mike, we are on the same wavelength. There are so many traditional things a Pope could have done, since the Catholic liturgical texts and benedictionals are filled with time-honored prayers he could have used. But bringing in a slab of ice from Greenland is pure, posturing politics. It’s what a drama-queen would do in public, or what a drag-queen would do in “story hour.”
And yes, you are right — this is nothing but performative stagecraft and virtue-signaling, designed to make a splash and go viral, and demonstrate one’s politically correct credentials. And unfortunately it is what is now expected in our internet-ridden world of videos and soundbites gone wild.
Mike, in regards to the Church/Politics mashup, would we be having this conversation if the pope was espousing a political agenda that you preferred? Or would you be applauding him for it? People, probably me included, want the pope to rant and rave about Charlie Kirk, the death penalty, and the calling of the next crusade, and get disappointed when he doesn’t. We don’t think he is political enough.
The Eastern Orthodox Church believes their patriarchs should be much more political. They are heavily more corrupted by national politics. The Roman pontiff’s role has been inextricably linked with politics ever since Peter was crucified at Nero’s Circus. Like Chesterton replied when someone asked him why he only talks about religion and politics, “What else is there to talk about?” They influence each other.
I agree the Church shouldn’t be of the world, but it should move it. In 2025 years nobody has seen more than the Church, and yet it still stands. The Church is not a “sanctuary of saints, but a hospital of sinners.” Every twelfth bishop is going to be a Judas Iscariot. And no pope is going to be greater than his first predecessor, Peter, who betrayed Christ at least three times. Out of all the popes on the Vatican list, how many can you name? We don’t need every pope to be Great, we just need him to be. This is something that destroys Protestantism, and which is why the Eastern Orthodox aren’t even in communion with each other and can’t hold an Ecumenical Council.
Despite the roiling seas, get back on the ark, grab a drink and stay on the storm-tossed ship. With the power of the Holy Sprit we will bail out the boat. The next generation of priests are more conservative and traditional than ever. It’s happening. There is a renewal. The liberals don’t reproduce. It’s only a matter of time before these based young men are bishops, and cardinals, and popes…
Dear Reid —
I don’t think anyone would deny that historically speaking the Popes have been power-wielders, and therefore involved in politics out of necessity. You couldn’t keep kings and emperors happy, or make war, or run the Papal States without understanding and using political power. But a good Pope knows how to be neutral and apolitical when it really matters, as Benedict XV was during the First World War. Millions of Catholics were being killed on both sides, so he had little choice. The best he could do was simply to make a general appeal for peace.
Yes, you and I might prefer that the current occupant of the Roman See show a bit more sympathy with our traditional, conservative, and rightist viewpoints. But that isn’t really an answer to Mike Bryant’s objection. It’s just a “tu quoque” argument. The Pope is political when he needs to be in some circumstances, and neutral when he has to be in some other circumstances. But he is NEVER supposed to take the political side of an anti-Catholic ideology like extreme environmentalism and its endless lies and propaganda.
What Prevost did with that ice chunk was to align himself with fanatical, deep-Green environmentalism, and he deliberately did it as a silent rebuke to President Trump’s expressed contempt for the “Climate Change” frenzy. It was a contextually clear political move, which is why Mike and I have called it a “performative stunt” and “staged virtue-signalling.”
When you tell us to “grab a drink and stay on the storm-tossed ship” you are just repeating the same old tired Remain-and-Resist mantra of Michael Matt and his various Popesplainer associates. It’s basically just an undated blank check to whoever is sitting in the Vatican to say and do whatever they like, because we lockstep-and-obedient Catholics will be respectful, not rock the boat, and continue to drop our envelopes in the collection basket.
Reid, no, I would not be pleased if the pope were a MAGA warrior. I understand the arc of history as you present it, but from my standpoint, the Vatican has always been a political entity as well as a religious one.
Since the early centuries after Rome became Christian, the organized Church exercised both spiritual authority and temporal power. The papacy eventually became the ruler of the Papal States—territories in central Italy it governed as a sovereign power from roughly the 8th century until 1870. This political role involved military, diplomatic, and administrative functions far removed from Christ’s teachings.
When Italy unified in the 19th century, it annexed these territories, dramatically limiting the pope’s temporal power. The popes then considered themselves “prisoners of the Vatican,” refusing to recognize the authority of the Italian state for almost 60 years. A lasting political resolution came only with the 1929 Lateran Treaty, which created the independent Vatican City State, acknowledging the pope’s sovereignty over a small territory.
Jesus gave us one prayer—the Lord’s Prayer—which, in my view, contains all the wisdom any follower of Christ needs. I believe that Christ’s kingdom is not the Vatican or any earthly political power but is a spiritual reign beyond worldly institutions.
Thank you for the challenge and opportunity to engage in this discussion.
Thanks Mike. I appreciate the opportunity to engage, trust me. You and Joe have a lot to teach me. You’re a great guy. This could go on forever and you’ve probably heard this all before. So I will leave it at this. I am more of the opinion that Christ did intend to build a visible, authoritative Church upon Peter and the apostles, establishing a New—more inclusive—Israel out of the remnant of the old.
When he initiates this in Mathew 16 he gives Peter, exclusively, the keys to his kingdom, directly referencing Isaiah 22: 21-22. Christ is the new David, the King of the true Israel, and Peter is the new “master of the household,” the Prime Minister of the House of David who will reign in Christ’s imminent absence; and who can be removed like a peg by the Lord if he needs to be. Popes are human and replaceable, but also wield an incredible amount of authority.
While Jesus commanded everybody to forgive one another’s sins, he only gave his apostles the authority to retain them (John 20:23), and left the Church as the “pillar and bulwark of truth” and as the ultimate arbiter in disputes against two brothers who have sinned or are in a disagreement, as we see in 1 Tim 3:15 and in Mathew 18.
While Jesus left us the Our Father, the most beautiful prayer that I say multiple times a day, it is the Church through scripture and tradition that preserved it and protected it. (It is funny that in the dozen or so Protestant churches that I followed my wife around to, not one of them ever recited the Our Father! Too repetitious! while on the contrary Catholics recite it everyday at Mass. It was the original liturgy.)
Christ didn’t leave us a Bible to interpret for ourselves, he left us an institution to propagate and protect the deposit of faith, to compile and canonize the Bible and to function as the New Israel as we endure our exile and await the coming of the New Jerusalem. Was Israel ever perfect, hell no. But we do our best until all is perfected in the Promised Land of Heaven.
Popes aren’t above our criticism. The greatest Saints have been at odds or critical of certain naughty popes, but, in my humble opinion, I want to try and be the one bailing out the boat before jumping off. I think we all should.
Thanks, Reid. The new guard at the Vatican are intent on temporal power. The College of Cardinals are locked in to the Spirit of this World. Their Bishops bow down or are replaced. Soon every priest will “bless the ice.”
Paul could have related the history and the bona fides of the High Priest and the Sanhedrin even after his epiphany. But he did not.
The Church has become the new Sanhedrin and the pope, the High Priest. Because of the Ecumenical Movement almost all religious institutions today are in lock step with the Vatican.
Surely this is a “moneychanger in the Temple” moment… not political… not left or right, but right or wrong.
If now is not the right time to call out every lie… when is?
How bad does it have to get before we stop making excuses for those who lie… especially those lying in God’s name?
https://www.classicalpoets.org/2023/02/a-modern-wordsmiths-dilemma-and-other-poetry-susan-jarvis-bryant/
It’s not a coincidence that “pope” rhymes with “dope.” Popes should stick to what they do best: pontificating. The world would be better off with a bit less ice.
C.B., thank you! Your wise observations never fail to impress me, although I will admit to feeling hopelessly mopey for not including “dope” in my pope poem!
Susan, it appears time that we begin to catalogue the absurd examples of performance art that this woke pope now engages in, taking a knee not to God but to leftist causes and jihadists. Have you seen the latest news? That this pope has opened a Muslim prayer room in the apostolic library?
https://zenit.org/2025/10/10/a-prayer-room-in-the-popes-library-vaticans-gesture-toward-muslim-scholars-sparks-quiet-storm
https://greekreporter.com/2025/10/15/vatican-library-muslim-prayer-room/
https://colombiaone.com/2025/10/15/vatican-library-muslim-prayer-room/
And, of course, there are no churches allowed in Saudi Arabia.
And do you think this Pope would allow for prayer rooms for Jews or Buddhists or Hindus?
What in hell is going on?
Brian, thank you for this. This is yet more evidence that this pope is as far removed from Christian teachings as I thought possible. Now nothing he does will surprise me – promoting sainthood for serial killers could well be his next venture. The one thing that does surprise me is those of faith clamoring to kiss his tarnished ring.
Well, Susan, this pope seems to be serving his father below (in the Screwtape sense) since he certainly does not seem to care either about the Catholic faith, Christianity, Christ or the protection and preservation of his own faith. Your comment of promoting sainthood for serial killers may well be in the cards. He certainly seems to love terrorists which explains why he seems to be groveling to jihadist interests.
This fake “Pope” is owned — lock, stock, and barrel — by the left-liberal globalists. And you are quite correct, Brian. How about special prayer rooms for Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, Protestants, Shintoists, Zoroastrians, Sikhs, Taoists, Santeria practitioners, and Animists? Why just for Islamic scholars?
Libraries are for reading, not for prayer. Or if anyone of any faith wishes to pray silently while doing research, no one would have any objection to that. This is just another virtue-signalling move by a corrupt Vatican, which every day is showing its true colors. The appointment of the insufferable Blaise Cupich (a confirmed hater of Catholic traditions and practices) to an important position of authority in the Vatican is another tell.
What’s next? The removal of all rare books and manuscripts from the Vatican Library, so that the place can become some damned ecumenical conference center?
Let’s see if the R&R Catholics have some way to “Popesplain” all of this.
Doctor Salemi, I think Dante put FIVE popes in hell. As far as I know, they are still there! It appears that any Poet that likewise condemns the misdeeds of the pontiff is in pretty good company. Perhaps the condemnation of the unacceptable is a mark of great poets!
Mike, I couldn’t agree more. And this is why Susan is clearly one of the very best poets around in the English-speaking world. She is not only a master wordsmith — she possesses an exceptional fearlessness of being willing to speak the truth, even when it hurts. I believe that Susan recognizes that anything less is a deep disservice to both God and Man.
Thanks, Brian. You do the same.
Sorry, Joe. My reply to you somehow landed as a new comment rather than as a reply to you.
I am trying to fathom what Islamic scholars could possible be researching at the Vatican archive — unless it’s an attempt to find out as much as they can about the Crusades so they can then claim victimhood and demand reparations. It would certainly be part of the pattern. And this virtue-signalling pope is delusional enough — and apparently timid enough — to allow it to happen, even as he destroys his own church. The successor to Peter indeed. I’m just waiting for him to issue abject apologies to everyone the Church has ever wounded throughout history. Except the Jews, of course.