Papal colors

By Patricia Kasten
Compass Associate Editor

The Holy Father traditionally wears white.

However, Pope Benedict XVI may be favoring a different shade lately: Green.

Not only does the pope use an electric popemobile for trips around Vatican City, he is also pursuing a program to utilize more solar power for the buildings within the 108-acre Vatican City state.

Further, he has been giving what is shaping up to be a series of talks on the welfare of the climate.

On Sept. 16, the pope gave a talk honoring the 20th anniversary of the adoption of the Montreal Protocol, an agreement negotiated by 29 nations to curb emissions of chemicals that damage the earth's ozone layer, saying the protocol was an important element in protecting the gifts of creation.

"I hope that this cooperation will be intensified by all parties, with the aim of promoting the common good, development and the safeguarding of creation, and strengthening the alliance between man and the environment," he said.

Earlier in the month, speaking to youth gathered at Loreto, a Marian shrine in Italy, the pope voiced concern about the sharing of the world's water supplies. It was a theme he had also addressed a few days earlier in a greeting to an environmental conference held in Greenland, saying the care of water resources was of "grave importance" for the entire human family. And last March, on World Water Day, the pope called access to water "an inalienable right" that needs protection, even to the point of changes in lifestyle for all of us.

When you consider that each American uses 100 gallons of water a day - when two-thirds of the world's population uses only 13 gallons a day - the pope has a point.

Whatever your feelings about global warming, the ozone layer, or curbing the cost of heating oil and gasoline, no one would deny that the earth has finite resources. Anyone questioning the concern about access to potable water need look no further than west Africa's Lake Chad, once the world's largest freshwater lake, which is now little more than a series of small pools, to be concerned. Lake Superior, in our own Great Lakes system, has seen a water level drop of 2.5 feet in the last decade.

While state and federal governments are working on the issues of resource management, we can play a role, too. Assuring fresh water and clean air for ourselves and future generations need not require huge efforts. Something as small as turning off lights when you leave a room, walking or biking to work once a week, or taking one shower a week instead of a bath can make a big difference over the course of one year.

As Pope Benedict XVI remarked about the Montreal Protocol, "In the last 20 years, thanks to an exemplary international cooperation involving politics, science and economics, important results have been obtained with positive consequences for present and future generations. I hope that this cooperation will be intensified by all parties, with the aim of promoting the common good, development and the safeguarding of creation, and strengthening the alliance between man and the environment."

After all, God did make us to be stewards of creation. And, even as the colors of Wisconsin begin to turn to gold and red, the pope has shown us that all seasons of the year require us to think green.