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Pope Benedict Adds Solar Panels To His Personal Home In Germany

Michael d'Estries — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 16:00:07 +0000

Pope Benedict XVI, not content to let the Vatican steal all the green glory, has just finished installing solar panels on his Bavarian home.

The 82-year-old Pontiff is certainly the greenest Pope yet — though his analogy of “saving gays” as akin to “saving the rainforests” is where we draw the line.

For his home near near Regensburg, Germany, over 580 square feet of photovoltaic solar panels were installed on the rooftop. The only condition for the project was that no church funds be used — so naturally, everything was donated. When tweaked and running, the panels are expected to output about 5,800 kilowatt hours of energy a year, which corresponds to saving 11 barrels of petroleum.

The project was commissioned not only for the environmental benefits, but also to produce income (which may amount to $3,500 a year), by providing the German electricity grid with energy. According to a German newspaper, the money will go to an association that offers skills and job training to disadvantaged youths.

In a recent encyclical, the Pope stated, “The technologically advanced societies can and must lower their domestic energy consumption, either through an evolution in manufacturing methods or through greater ecological sensitivity among their citizens. It should be added that at present it is possible to achieve improved energy efficiency while at the same time encouraging research into alternative forms of energy. ”

No word on whether the Pope will actually get to enjoy his solarized residence: his last visit there was in 2006.

via Sierra Club Green Home

Pope Says “Saving” Gays Just As Important As Saving The Rainforest

Michael d'Estries — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 02:42:58 +0000

This could have almost come from The Onion. In fact, their rolling-on-the-floor hilarious article last week titled “Typo In Proposition 8 Defines Marriage As Between ‘One Man And One Wolfman’“would have been a great lead-up. Instead it’s simply another sad anti-gay rallying cry from Pope Benedict — but with an environmental twist! See, now we can all understand where the religious right are coming from! It’s like “saving” the Rainforest, man. From his speech,

“(The Church) should also protect man from the destruction of himself. A sort of ecology of man is needed,” the pontiff said in a holiday address to the Curia, the Vatican’s central administration. “The tropical forests do deserve our protection. But man, as a creature, does not deserve any less.” The pope said humanity needed to “listen to the language of creation” to understand the intended roles of man and woman. He compared behavior beyond traditional heterosexual relations as “a destruction of God’s work.” He also defended the Church’s right to “speak of human nature as man and woman, and ask that this order of creation be respected.”

Hey, no problem there. If the church wants discriminate under its roof, so be it. Just don’t go invading the privacy of others with some ass-backwards theory on how immoral their lives are. In terms of respect, how about a little for something called separation of church and state?

Anyways, if the Christian right is willing to donate one dollar to rainforest preservation for every dollar they spend fighting gay marriage, some good may actually come out of this BS. Unless of course, the rainforests turn out to be gay. Then the church is in a real pickle.

Pope Benedict XVI: Stop Wearing Fur

sara — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 13:08:51 +0000

The Italian Association for the Defence of Animals and the Environment (AIDAA) has launched an Internet petition to demand that the Pope stop wearing fur, such as the ermine-trimmed cape he wears in the winter. Lorenzo Croce, chairman of the AIDAA, says, “We just want to ask him in a message of love and peace to give a strong signal towards the protection of animals and the environment through a small but very significant personal sacrifice.”

I remember back when Pope Benedict XVI was “the new pope” and I did a piece at YouthNoise on how he frowned upon animal cruelty. Surely wearing fur qualifies as cruelty?

via The Times of India

The Pope Says We’re Insatiable

lori — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 13:40:22 +0000

Pope Benedict XVI is on a visit down under, “g-day mate”, where he told an audience of hundreds of thousands that we’re squandering our natural resources with our insatiable consumption. Yes, insatiable! He urged people to care more for the the environment, and that nonviolence, sustainable development, justice and care for the environment were of vital importance for humanity. Did you know that earlier this year the Pope declared ”polluting the environment” has become a mortal sin? That’s major - Don’t pollute!

via: msnbc.msn.com

The Pope Gives A Shout Out To Mother Earth During His Christmas Mass

Michael Parrish DuDell — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 01:43:18 +0000

I’m half Jewish and half Catholic, so I feel like it’s only HALF appropriate I cover this story. But on the other hand, I’m 100 percent green, so here it goes, baby:

Pope Benedict XVI used his Christmas homily to speak out against the destruction of our environment and human selfishness during the midnight mass at St Peter’s Basilica. During the homily, he stated, “Man is so preoccupied with himself, he has such urgent need of all the space and all the time for his own things, that nothing remains for others – for his neighbour, for the poor, for God.” Continuing, he added, “What would he (God) say if he could see the state of the world today, through the abuse of energy and its selfish and reckless exploitation?

The pope is considered to be the spiritual leader of about 1.1 and 1/2 billion Catholics (the half, being me) and just think how much help that homily could do if every last one of them really listened. You know it’s serious when the Vatican goes green.