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ByRachelZolland Emily Swanson The Associated Press NEW YORK A new sur- vey has found fewer than half of U.S. Roman Catho- lics said they knew of Pope Francis' bombshell encyc- lical on curbing climate change — and only a frac- tion of those heard about it from the pulpit — in the month after he released the document with an unprec- edented call for the church to take up his message. Forty percent of Amer- ican Catholics and 31 per- cent of all adults said they were aware of the encycli- cal, according to the poll by The Associated Press- NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and Yale University. Among Cath- olics who knew about the document, just 23 percent said they heard about it at Mass. The survey, conducted July 17-19, provides an early measure of the impact of the encyclical in the U.S., where Francis is expected to press his teaching on the environment in his first visit to the country next month. The U.S. is home to some of the staunchest ob- jectors to mainstream sci- ence on climate change and to government in- tervention aimed at eas- ing global warming, along with a segment of Catho- lics who think the pope should be talking far more about marriage and abor- tion than the environment. In the encyclical, re- leased June 18, Francis called global warming a largely manmade problem driven by overconsump- tion, a "structurally per- verse" world economic sys- tem and an unfettered pur- suit of profit that exploited the poor and risked turn- ing the Earth into an "im- mense pile of filth." He urged people of all faiths and no faith to save God's creation for future gener- ations. Environmental advo- cates hoped the encycli- cal would transform pub- lic discussion of climate change from a scientific to a moral issue. But Catho- lics in the survey were not significantly more likely than Americans in gen- eral to think of global warming in moral terms. Just 43 percent of Catho- lics and 39 percent of all adults said they considered global warming a moral is- sue. A very small percent- age viewed climate change as having a connection to religion or poverty. "That's unfortunate," said Dan Misleh, executive director of the Catholic Climate Covenant, which works closely with the U.S. bishops on environmental protection and has distrib- uted model sermons and parish bulletin inserts on the encyclical. "There's a clear human impact. That's going to be our challenge — to explain that this en- vironmental question is really a human thriving question." The document had a rollout unlike any other. The encyclical was intro- duced at the Vatican by a secular climate scien- tist and a top Orthodox Christian leader, with si- multaneous news confer- ences by Catholic leaders in many countries and the chiming of church bells for emphasis. Francis un- derscored the importance of the document by send- ing it to the world's bish- ops with a handwritten note. But questions arose about whether American bishops and parishioners would embrace the mes- sage with any enthusiasm. While the bishops for de- cades have issued state- ments calling environmen- tal protection a religious duty for Catholics, the is- sue has not been atop their public agenda. For years, the U.S. Con- ference of Catholic Bish- ops has focused its re- sources on upholding mar- riage as the union of a man and a woman, seeking re- ligious exemptions from laws the bishops consider immoral, fighting abortion and clergy sex abuse, and bringing back fallen-away Catholics. ENCYCLICAL Minority of US Catholics know pope's climate views ALESSANDRATARANTINO—THEASSOCIATEDPRESSFILE Pope Francis rides in his rain-covered vehicle a er his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican. By Albert Aji and Bassem Mroue The Associated Press DAMASCUS, SYRIA The 81-year-old antiquities scholar had dedicated his life to exploring and over- seeing Syria's ancient ruins of Palmyra, one of the Mid- dle East's most spectacu- lar archaeological sites. He even named his daughter after Zenobia, the queen that ruled from the city 1,700 years ago. On Wednesday, relatives and witnesses said Khaled al-Asaad was beheaded by Islamic State militants who seized the city earlier this year, his body hung on a pole in a main square. The brutal killing stunned Syria's archaeo- logical community and un- derscored fears the extrem- ists will destroy or loot the 2,000-year-old Roman-era city on the edge of a mod- ern town of the same name, as they have other major ar- chaeological sites in Syria and Iraq. Antiquities officials said they believed IS militants had interrogated al-Asaad, a long-time director of the site, trying to get him to di- vulge where authorities had hidden treasures secreted out of Palmyra to protect them before the extremists seized the ruins. "We have lost not just a scholar of archaeology but one of the pillars of archae- ology in the 20th century," said Ahmad Ferzat Taraqji, a 56-year-old antiquities ex- pert and friend of the vic- tim. The Sunni extremists, who have imposed a vio- lent interpretation of Is- lamic law across the terri- tory they control in Syria and Iraq, claim ancient rel- ics promote idolatry and say they are destroying them as part of their purge of paganism — though they are also believed to sell off looted antiquities, bring- ing in significant sums of cash. Known as "Mr. Palmyra" among Syrian antiquities experts for his authorita- tive knowledge and decades administering the site, al- Asaad refused to leave even after IS militants captured the town and neighboring ruins in May. IS extremists detained the scholar three weeks ago, al-Homsi said, speaking on condition his real name not be used for fear of reprisals from IS and the Syrian gov- ernment. On Tuesday, al-Homsi watched as al-Asaad was brought in a van to a main square near a vegetable market packed with shop- pers. Dressed in ordinary clothes and not the orange jumpsuits worn by other hostages before they were beheaded, al-Asaad stood as a militant read out five accusations against him, including that he was the "director of idols," repre- sented Syria "at infidel con- ferences" and visited Shiite powerhouse Iran. Maamoun Abdulkarim, the head of the Antiquities and Museums Department in Damascus, said al-Asaad was a pioneer in Syrian ar- chaeology. ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE IS b eh ea ds a gi ng S yr ia n antiquities scholar in Palmyra By George Jahn The Associated Press VIENNA Iran will be al- lowed to use its own inspec- tors to investigate a site it has been accused of using to develop nuclear arms, op- erating under a secret agree- ment with the U.N. agency that normally carries out such work, according to a document seen by The As- sociated Press. TherevelationonWednes- day newly riled Republican lawmakers in the U.S. who have been severely critical of a broader agreement to limit Iran's future nuclear pro- grams, signed by the Obama administration, Iran and five world powers in July. Those critics have complained that the wider deal is unwisely built on trust of the Irani- ans, while the administra- tion has insisted it depends on reliable inspections. "International inspections should be done by interna- tional inspectors. Period. The standard of 'anywhere, anytime' inspections — so critical to a viable agreement — has dropped to 'when Iran wants, where Iran wants, on Iran's terms,'" said U.S. House Foreign Affairs Com- mittee Chairman Ed Royce in a reaction typical of op- ponents of the broader deal. The newly disclosed side agreement, for an investi- gation of the Parchin nu- clear site by the U.N.'s In- ternational Atomic Energy Agency, is linked to persis- tent allegations that Iran has worked on atomic weapons. That investigation is part of the overarching nuclear-lim- its deal. Evidence of the inspec- tions concession, as outlined in the document, is sure to increase pressure from U.S. congressional opponents be- fore a Senate vote of disap- proval on the overall agree- ment in early September. If the resolution passes and President Barack Obama vetoes it, opponents would needatwo-thirdsmajorityto override it. Even Senate Ma- jority Leader Mitch McCon- nell, a Republican, has sug- gested opponents will likely lose a veto fight, though that was before Wednesday's dis- closure. John Cornyn of Texas, the second-ranking Repub- lican senator, said, "Trust- ing Iran to inspect its own nuclear site and report to the U.N. in an open and trans- parent way is remarkably na- ive and incredibly reckless. This revelation only rein- forces the deep-seated con- cerns the American people have about the agreement." SECRET AGREEMENT UN to let Iran inspect alleged nuke work site Thiscouldbeyourluckyday by helping a dog or cat find a loving home from... Ad Sponsorship $ 25 Call Suzy 737-5056 RedBluffDailyNews ELI Paws & Claws TEHAMACOUNTYANIMAL SHELTER 1830 Walnut Street P.O. Box 38 • Red Bluff, CA 96080 (530) 527-3439 CORNING ANIMAL SHELTER 4312 Rawson Rd. Corning, CA 96021 (530) 824-7054 ADOPT A PET TODAY FacebookPage 4,263fans + 18 this week .. and growing, every week! 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