Pope Francis says global warming is ruining what he calls our "common home," and that it especially impacts the poor.

The pontiff making the comments a day before the official release of his encyclical on climate change. A leaked version of the document quotes Francis as saying man is the main cause of rising temperatures on the planet and that developed nations must take urgent and drastic action to address it.

Yahoo Finance Editor-in-Chief Andy Serwer believes this could present a problem for Roman Catholic Republican Presidential hopefuls who might disagree.

Pope Francis greets the crowd as he arrives for his general audience at St Peter's Square in the Vatican, on June 17, 2015 (AFP Photo/Alberto Pizzoli) More

“Going up against the pope is not cool, it’s not necessarily a good thing, he’s very popular,” Serwer notes. “On the other hand, does he have any business weighing in on global warming or not? This is a great conversation piece.”

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Two Roman Catholic GOP candidates-- Rick Santorum and Jeb Bush-- suggest that the pope should stay out of the debate.

But Yahoo Finance Senior Columnist Michael Santoli isn’t convinced this will carry much weight in the 2016 campaign.

“I don’t know how much stamina that’s going to have,” he says. “You’ve had Democratic candidates over the years who have said 'I’m a pro-choice Catholic'-- you’re able, to some degree, to pick and choose your issue and pick your political stances not solely based on your religious faith.”

Serwer says that’s a valid point.

“When has any Roman Catholic candidate ever agreed with every, single piece of church doctrine? Never,” he points out. “There are always going to be differences, particularly here in the United States.”

However, Santoli believes Francis is changing the dynamic over what the global warming discussion should be about.

“His positioning of it as a moral issue as opposed to one of these debates where there is supposedly valid points on either side of it, it’s an interesting gambit,” he says. “It is without a doubt very interesting and will keep this issue live.”

And Serwer feels the pope can really get governments to act on it.

“If you look at countries in Latin America, he has a huge impact. He has a huge impact in the United States, in parts of Europe,” he argues. “He has a huge mandate.”

But Serwer also thinks Francis might be able to move the needle in other ways as well.

“We’ve talked about moves by college endowments to divest from fossil-fuel companies-- could he add weight to that debate,” he wonders. “What about at Roman Catholic institutions? There are a lot of places this could play out.”

Santoli agrees there are many areas where the pope can exert has influence.

“I’m pretty sure he has a pretty wide brief,” he jokes.

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