THE GREEN POPE

from “A Tract for our Times”

Writer Woodene Koenig-Bricker describes Pope Benedict XVI as “the greenest Pope in history.”

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Pope Benedict XVI has said that we need to “transform the world, and give it back to God.”

He has installed solar panels in the Vatican, and has even accepted 580 square feet of photo-voltaic solar panels on the rooftop of his house in Bavaria which should generate some 5,800 kilowatt hours of energy a year, saving 11 barrels of petroleum.

He has warned that, “the stockpiling of natural resources, in many cases in the poor countries themselves, gives rise to exploitation, and frequent conflicts between, and within, nations.”

Jesus of Nazareth once said of his Father: “His sun rises on the bad and the good. He rains on the just and the unjust.” (Matthew 5)

“The environment,” said Benedict XVI in his latest encyclical letter, “is God’s gift to everyone. In our use of it, we have a responsibility towards the poor, towards future generations, and towards humanity as a whole.”

Planet Earth is for everybody. Those who live on it need to keep it in good shape, much as the Creator of all things obviously intends by his generous shining and sharing of the sun and the rain upon everybody, whether or not they live in the way he has outlined in his 10 commandments given to Moses.

Jetstream Wind is a New Mexico-based energy technology company. It is building a $219 million plant that will use electricity from the wind, solar, and other renewable energy sources to separate water into hydrogen and oxygen.

The hydrogen will be burned in a turbine to generate enough electricity to power about 6,000 homes. They say this is “the first utility zero-emissions hydrogen power plant.” No pollution of the atmosphere in any way.

“Truth or Consequences” is not just the name of the town in New Mexico where the plant is being located.

It is also a salutary reminder to all of us as we ponder how we might, in little or large ways, best save Planet Earth.

For the poor.

For future generations.

For humanity as a whole.