Sunday is Palm Sunday, a day to celebrate the possibility of freedom from oppression. For some Lutherans and Catholics, however, it is also a chance to make a statement about the environment and social justice.
A new movement promotes the use of "eco-friendly" palm fronds harvested from Guatemala and Mexico. Conventional methods can produce up to 50 percent waste and deplete the natural supply. More than 300 million palm fronds are harvested each year for U.S. consumption alone, including floral displays at church-related events.
Under the "green" palm program, only 5 to 7 percent is wasted. On top of that, the farmers sell their palms directly to U.S. distributors, thereby earning a better wage for workers.
"We heard from our regional [Lutheran] leaders there was an option to purchase palm branches harvested in a way that isn't damaging to the environment and it seemed like a sensible thing to do," said the Rev. Corinne Thul, pastor of Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Logan, one of three Utah congregations to buy these palms. "We wanted to ensure our Palm Sunday celebration didn't include any harmful effects."
It's a small thing, Thul said, but it could "make a big difference to a lot of people."
The Lutheran World Relief and the University of Minnesota's Center for Integrated Natural Resources and Agricultural Management developed the Eco-Palm Program. Last year, congregations from 48 states and Canada placed more than 250,000 orders for the palms. Now Catholic orders of the palms through Catholic Relief Services' Fair Trade Program account for 15 percent of the project, according to Kim Pozniak, a spokesperson for the program.
Even more Catholic parishes may soon be joining the eco-palm movement in light of last week's statements by Bishop Gianfranco Girotti, the regent of the Apostolic Penitentiary at the Vatican. He condemned polluting the environment, creating poverty and contributing to the widening divide between rich and poor as "social sins."
"You offend God not only by stealing, taking the Lord's name in vain or coveting your neighbor's wife, but also by wrecking the environment, carrying out morally debatable experiments that manipulate DNA or harm embryos," Girotti told the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, as reported by the Catholic News Service.
The Rev. Rick Sherman, pastor at St. Pius X Catholic Church in Moab, welcomes Girotti's comments about the environment. He's long linked care for the Earth with Catholic social teachings.
"We believe that God has a plan for the world, that has inherent order and harmony," Sherman said. "Our understanding of humans having dominion over the earth is the idea of stewardship. We are called to attend to the garden, make it more fertile but not push it beyond its carrying capacity. We have an obligation to live within the order God created, the same order that flows through everything God created."
In 2005, Sherman led a 12-part discussion series at his church based on a book of essays, Simpler Living, Compassionate Life: A Christian Perspective. For five months, a couple dozen Catholics and friends discussed such issues as how to be more aware about food, how it's grown, who picks it and how they are treated, the use of pesticides, the hidden costs of transportation, whether it's been genetically altered and whether it's grown in an environmentally congruent place.
At the end, many attendees were committed to doing things differently, such as shopping at markets for locally grown foods rather than at big-box stores, he said. "We need a spirituality that will produce sustainable change and a support group to help us get there. It's a whole vision of mindful living."
---
* PEGGY FLETCHER STACK can be contacted at pstack@sltrib.com or 801-257-8725. Send comments about this story to religioneditor@sltrib.com.
