Vatican tells vacationers to mind Mother Earth | Environment | Reuters

I was reading this article yesterday about the Catholic church's environmental advice for the summer and thinking about M's connection between religion and the environment. I have not been able to find the original list of tips released by the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People,* but I'm guessing that the list which is reportedly said to contain suggestions such as bringing less luggage on airplane to reduce fuel consumption and planting trees to reduce one's carbon footprint is largely tied to the Vatican's larger interest in becoming the first entirely carbon neutral sovereign state.

Even though "going green" isn't exactly as radical as it used to be, I'm encouraged that the Church is being as proactive as they are, and I'm really interested in this movement from a view of environmentalist as tree-hugging, commune-dwelling people living as far away from institutional life as possible, to a lifestyle that is being promoted by major institutions. The cynic in me wonders sometimes if "going green" has become a marketing ploy or the latest fad, but the optimist hopes that maybe there really is a larger shift happening here. Does this mean that the divide between academe and spirituality will also begin to become blurred?

The Catholic Church has been notoriously slow at adapting to modern life (i.e. the infamous Galileo apology 400 years late), but I've been intrigued with the adaptation that the church seems to be including lately. Nearly a year ago and way before I had this blog, the Church issued the Ten Commandments of Driving. This list intrigued me because I work with cars a lot in my dissertation (someday I will explain the significance of the title of my blog), so the fact that the Church went so far as to create a rather lengthy document about driving really fascinated me. Number 5:

Cars shall not be for you an expression of power and domination, and an occasion of sin.

is really interesting to me because when applied to adolescent literature, it becomes my dissertation (in a non-religious way). While I don't usually mix my religious beliefs and my scholarship, I was shocked to find this interesting intersection.

Earlier this spring, the Catholic Church made another foray into the 21st century by contextualizing some other modern behaviors as sins. Pollution was on the list. This list in general makes me a little nervous for reasons I'll go into another time, but I am really interested in watching these tensions shift and evolve. I hope that the ecological connection is a sign that society's views are shifting and not that we are going to now try and guilt people into following a rule as one British newspaper headline suggested (Recycle or Go to Hell). In the meantime, I applaud the method of offering suggestions and tips that I have seen them use so far.

*Note: if you Google this, Google asks: Did you mean: Pastoral Care of Migrants and Ignorant People Not PC, but it made me laugh (and, yes, I am Catholic)