The 'greening' of institutional Christianity

By John L Allen Jr
Dec 15 2006 - 07:57   

          

All Things Catholic by John L. Allen, Jr.
	Friday, Dec. 15, 2006 - Vol. 6, No. 15

When Pope Benedict XVI and Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople met recently, the encounter was spun in a variety of ways: As an effort to reunite Eastern and Western Christianity; As an attempt to forge a united Christian front vis-à-vis Islam; Eeven as a bid to pool resources to combat runaway secularism in Europe.

What the meeting was not generally seen as -- though it easily could have been -- was an encounter between two outspoken environmentalists, struggling to stir the conscience of the world about a mounting ecological crisis.

While environmentalism has long been a cause more associated with the secular left, the increasingly intense engagement of both the patriarch and the pope, who cannot by any stretch of the imagination be seen as avant garde figures, suggests a broad "greening" of institutional Christianity.

[The whole piece by John Allen is well worth reading.  To do so, click here.]