Pope Francis is getting a big welcome to Washington, DC, where he will deliver an address to Congress next week. But one Republican congressman, Paul Gosar of Arizona, says he won’t be going — because the pontiff will reportedly be talking about climate change.

“More troubling is the fact that this climate change talk has adopted all of the socialist talking points, wrapped false science and ideology into ‘climate justice’ and is being presented to guilt people into leftist policies,” Gosar writes in a guest post at Town Hall, entitled “Why I Am Boycotting Pope Francis’ Address to Congress.”

Instead, Gosar writes, the pope should’ve used this opportunity to talk about other issues — like radical Islamic terrorism, as well as “the current intolerance of religious freedom.”

If the Pope stuck to standard Christian theology, I would be the first in line. If the Pope spoke out with moral authority against violent Islam, I would be there cheering him on. If the Pope urged the Western nations to rescue persecuted Christians in the Middle East, I would back him wholeheartedly. But when the Pope chooses to act and talk like a leftist politician, then he can expect to be treated like one.

Gosar also describes himself as “a proud Catholic” who chose to go to college and grad school at a Jesuit college to earn his degree in dentistry, “and where I was taught to think critically, to welcome debate and discussion and to be held accountable for my actions; a trademark of a Jesuit education.”

And finally, I am a Conservative, a member of Congress, a constitutionalist and adamant defender of our Republic; an American that believes in strict adherence to the rule of law and a firm believer in our First Amendment protections, in this particular discussion, the freedom of religion.

Photo: Congressman Paul Gosar (R-AZ), via Facebook.