Earth Day shoud be every day...

           

I grew up on the shores of Onondaga Lake in Upstate New York. I am reminded of it on a regular basis because years ago a friend gave me a framed photograph of it for my birthday. It hangs in my study where I am writing this column. It’s a beautiful lake, and unusual in New York as there is virtually no residential development around its shores. Three quarters of the lake is surrounded by one of the longest parks in Upstate New York and attracts over a million visitors a year.  Like most “Upstaters,” I spent a good chunk of the summer playing Frisbee with friends while enjoying the cool breezes that came off the lake. I never swam in Onondaga Lake, however. If I wanted to swim, I would have to drive 16 miles to the south and east of Onondaga Lake where Green Lake hosted a wide, sandy beach on its northern shore.

            Onondaga Lake is considered to be the most polluted lake in the United States. Swimming was banned in 1940 and commercial fishing on the lake ended in 1970. The lake’s destruction began in 1884 when the Solvay Process Company started producing soda ash which is used in the manufacture of a wide variety of products including paper and glass. Its by-products traversed a viaduct which then dumped them directly into the lake. I can still remember seeing the effluent pour into the lake while playing ball on the opposite shore.  Even though Solvay Process closed its plant almost 30 years ago, Onondaga Lake is still unsafe; having been classified as a public health threat and listed as a Federal Superfund site. It will take 15 years and a third of a billion dollars to restore Onondaga Lake to the condition it was in at the time the Iroquois Confederacy was created along its shores.

            Today (April 22^nd) is the 43^rd anniversary of Earth Day. From a modest protest march of Columbia University students down Fifth Avenue, the celebration of Earth Day has spread to schools and colleges throughout the United States and to 192 countries. The Clean Water Act became law just three years after the first Earth Day Celebration and, forty years later, continues to set the standard for what substances can be introduced into the Nation’s rivers and lakes. It took another 16 years, however, before Solvay Process would stop dumping chemicals into Onondaga Lake.  Even today the lake continues to receive treated waste water from the local Metropolitan Sewage Treatment Facility.

            It never occurred to me when I was young that the willful pollution of Onondaga Lake was a monumental eco-crime. I just took it for granted that the lake was unswimmable as I drove the 16 miles to Green Lake. So, I wonder what our students take for granted now that Earth Day has become an annual fact of life. Certainly the seniors in our Environmental Science class get a hefty dose of reality as they manage a school-wide recycling program two to three times a week.  I wonder if they take note of the large quantities of paper that fill the blue bins in offices and classrooms. I wonder if they take for granted that not all the paper is recyclable and that a good chunk of it will help to fill up a land fill in Puente Hills. And, as I took for granted that Onondaga Lake was unswimmable, will they assume that recycling is as good as it gets and - even more to the point - will they ask themselves who does the recycling when school lets out for the summer?

            Thanks to the generosity of one of our most loyal donors, the School has created the Robinson Fellowship in Environmental Science. Three juniors will be given the opportunity to spend a week this summer in Yellowstone Park, working side by side with National Park Service ecologists and field researchers. They will work on conservation and wildlife restoration projects, collect data related to current field research including population studies, invasive and endangered species accounting as well as challenges to the food chain.  As part of the Fellowship, they will be expected to prepare a presentation on the experience to their fellow students in the Environmental Science class.

            Perhaps these students - and those who will follow them to Yellowstone Park - will acquire a better appreciation for the fragility of Nature than those of us who took for granted that we lived on the shores of the most polluted lake in the United States.

Papa del Popolo

            For the first time in a long time, it feels good to be Catholic. The troubles that have beset the Church here in the US and across the globe have been, at times, overwhelming for the average person in the pew (myself included). So, to have the opportunity to watch the presentation of our new Pope live on TV (I played hooky from my weekly Rotary meeting), was an enormous spiritual shot in the arm. Then, to learn that he is the first pope from the Americas and that he would be taking the name, Francis, symbolizing his long-standing commitment to the poor and marginalized, enabled this discouraged Catholic to hope that his papacy would move in a fresh direction; one which would rescue a Church mired in scandal, ecclesiastical intrigue and the loss of Church-going members on a massive scale.

            To highlight the importance of that last issue: the National Opinion Research Center reports that only 7% of Americans identify as “strong” Catholics. In Italy, the most “Catholic” country in the world, that number is a mere 22% and in Brazil, home to the greatest number of Catholics on the globe, only 20% attend Mass on a regular basis.

In his resignation statement, Pope Benedict XVI spoke of the Church facing a world of "rapid changes" whose faith has been "shaken".  Our new Pope is faced with a bewildering array of challenges that are unique to this century. With Catholics abandoning the pews in droves, vocations to the priesthood and religious life in free fall and the very credibility of the Church itself in question, Pope Francis will shoulder burdens that would fell lesser individuals. His every move will be analyzed, critiqued and criticized. Fellow Jesuit, Commentator Thomas Reese, SJ succinctly characterized the ideal qualities of the next pope as “Jesus Christ with an MBA.”

Fortunately we appear to have a Pope who is keenly aware of the power of symbolic behavior to shape minds and change hearts - beginning with the name he has chosen - which has never been selected by any previous pope. And, because he is a Jesuit, he quickly made certain that everyone knew he was referring to Saint Francis of Assisi and not Saint Francis Xavier, one of the co-founders of his religious order. Furthermore, our new Pope, on exiting the Conclave, eschewed the papal limousine to ride in the same bus as the Cardinals who elected him. Perhaps my favorite symbolic behavior of this Pope took place on the loggia overlooking Saint Peter’s Square just after his election had been announced. Before imparting the usual blessing of a new pope on the crowd gathered in front of him, Francis asked the crowd to pray for him. He bent forward in prayer and immediately the crowd of thousands in the Square grew silent with their own prayer.

I’d like to think there was an additional explanation for the Holy Father’s selection of the name Francis; which lies in the founding story of the Saint from Assisi. While praying in La Porciúncula - a small chapel which had fallen into disrepair - he encountered Jesus in a vision, asking Francis to “rebuild my church”.  It was only later, when Francis had gathered the small group of men who formed what would become the world-wide Order of Franciscans, that the Saint realized the Lord wanted him to address the spiritual and philosophical decay of the Catholic Church, not a small chapel located beyond the gates of Assisi.

Perhaps the Lord is calling Pope Francis to “rebuild his Church.” Perhaps we have a pope who understands that actions matter more than words. Perhaps “sign and symbol” will become the hallmark of his papacy and serve to fulfill the dream of the last two popes to create a “new evangelization” which will bring Catholics together in ways that weren’t possible in the recent past. Saint Francis encouraged his friars to preach the Gospel at all times and, when necessary, use words.

I think this pope gets that instruction right.