Who knew!?
The Our Father is actually a guide to reducing our "carbon footprint."
An interpretative key overlooked by scores of Church fathers and doctors for two-thousand years has been discovered by a nun in Cincinnati:
One must only scan the daily newspaper or watch the TV news to realize that humanity finds itself in what may be the most dangerous time in human history. The evidence is reported daily.
Social unrest, war, violence in the human community, climate change, drought, intense storms, melting glaciers and loss of species diversity happen across the planet. Much of the damage which is causing these conditions comes from a domination of nature, especially since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution—about the last 160 years!
If we did an examination of conscience about our ecological sins, most of us would be alarmed to find that we Americans are using six times as much as Earth can provide over the long term.
This is what Mathis Wackernagel and William Rees report in their sobering book Our Ecological Footprint: Reducing Human Impact on the Earth. They calculate the resources needed to sustain the consumption and waste disposal of different lifestyles and state them in acres.
Earth’s “ecological capacity” is 5.3 acres per person (decreasing each year as new people join the human community). The average U.S. footprint (31 acres per person) contrasts dramatically even with that of Europeans (15 on average), making it clear that the rich world lives at levels three to six times what Earth can afford.
But how can this be? Obviously, it is only because the footprints of countries in the developing world are so low. Think of India, which has over one billion people (nearly one sixth of Earth’s population), where the average footprint is only two acres. Knowledge of these disparities is awakening movements toward ecojustice all over the planet. Clearly, this should be a mandate for anyone who wants to be called Christian.
In a talk the other day about St. Cyril of Alexandria, the Holy Father reminded bishops that it is their duty to correct errant teachings. Should His Excellency Daniel J. Pilarczyk choose to follow Pope Benedict's lead, he would not need to travel far. In all seriousness, if what Sister Paula is doing isn't blasphemy, it's damn close.
October 4, 2007
