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Vatican Installs Solar Panels On Roof

September 29, 2008 05:32 PM EST | AP

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Read More: Catholic Church, Energy, Pope Benedict XVI, Renewable Energy, Vatican, Green News
Vatican site manager Andre Koekenhoff, left, and Johannes Dahl, of German company Thermovolt, set up a solar panel on the roof of the Paul VI Hall, at the Vatican, Monday, Sept. 29, 2008. According to the workers involved in the project, a total of 2700 panels will be placed to provide 300,000 kilowatt hours which will be used to illuminate, heat or cool the building where the pontiff holds his general audiences in the winter and in bad weather. Concerts in honor of the pontiff are also staged in the 6,300-seat audience hall. In the background St. Peter's Basilica. (AP Photo/Riccardo De Luca)

ROME — The first solar panels were installed Monday on top of the papal audience hall at Vatican City.

Workers began putting photovoltaic cells on the roof of the hall to convert sunlight into electricity. In sunny Rome, engineers say the cells will produce enough electricity to illuminate, heat or cool the hall.

The hall is used for weekly papal audiences during winter and other times of year when the weather is bad.

Pope Benedict XVI's has made conserving resources an important concern of his papacy.

ROME — The first solar panels were installed Monday on top of the papal audience hall at Vatican City. Workers began putting photovoltaic cells on the roof of the hall to convert sunlight into ...
ROME — The first solar panels were installed Monday on top of the papal audience hall at Vatican City. Workers began putting photovoltaic cells on the roof of the hall to convert sunlight into ...
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Yankeegirl1958
1 Fans
10:57 PM on 09/30/2008
That is great and I am really excited about that. I think it is great that our Pope believes in renewable energy sources.
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doctordawg
62 Fans
08:01 PM on 09/30/2008
The pope goes solar. Nice sentiment, but I wonder how many third world village hospitals or wells or schools or flour mills or looms could be powered by all those panels? Instead, it's for the comfort and illumination of the men in funny hats and those who would worship them.

The Vatican Tourism Board: Come and see the greatest plunder on earth.
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KillTheMessenger
106 Fans
02:09 PM on 10/01/2008
The comfort level of the Pope won't be changed by any of that. I believe the move is one that is trying to assert moral authority. The Church, one has to give them that, realizes that Christians have a moral obligation to treat "the garden outside of the garden" respectfully. What the Vatican says to all of mankind is: this is serious, we are threatening the very world we were given (by God). WE are being told to change our ways and this is one of the steps along the way.

Catholicism is, theologically and philosophically, not all that bad. For sure it accepts personal responsibility. Catholics do not believe that ALL it takes is forgiveness. God does not forgive what we do against our next. He asks our next to forgive us. But we still need to change our ways. That's a necessary precondition that seems to have been lost in the non-Catholic Christian world sometime after the Reformation.

On a practical level I agree. Many people could have been helped more and better if this money had been invested close to the poor. But I accept the judgment call to the church. They saw the time ripe to set an example. And I am glad they did not wait 360 years, which is a timescale more compatible with their structures.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
sociocanuck
Red Tory mind / Progressive voting history
133 Fans
04:54 PM on 09/30/2008
...I expected more of the usual "this proves Environmentalists are a religious cult" commentary...
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darthdarcy
42 Fans
02:59 PM on 09/30/2008
Plant some tomatoes while you're at it...
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KillTheMessenger
106 Fans
07:07 PM on 09/29/2008
Not bad for a religion that took 360 years to admit that they were wrong and Galileo was right. OTOH, the sun shines just as brightly in a geocentric universe...

:-)
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Smirk
Cake or death.
467 Fans
06:18 PM on 09/29/2008
Glad he did. Hope it inspires some of the faithful to consider following suit.
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