California Catholics "go green" for Lent...

Unfortunately it appears that Catholic bishops in California (aka "The Land of Fruits and Nuts") are just as bonkers as the rest of the state. Pity, especially at a time when the Church is under attack for things like it's teachings against homosexual acts. Here's the story, courtesy of California Catholic Daily via Pewsitter;

In its latest Public Policy Insights newsletter, emailed to subscribers on Feb. 12, the Catholic Legislative Network is recommending a new way to observe Lent, which begins tomorrow. The newsletter is produced by the California Catholic Conference, the lobbying arm of the state’s bishops.

“As the Lenten season arrives, the Catholic Coalition on Climate Change has provided Catholics, schools and organizations with more tools and resources for its annual Catholic Climate Covenant,” says the newsletter. “The Coalition was formed three and a half years ago to help implement the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' (USCCB) 2001 initiative ‘Global Climate Change: A Plea for Dialogue, Prudence and the Common Good.’ Launched last year, the Covenant revolves around the St. Francis Pledge, which correlates five key actions -- pray, learn, assess, act and advocate -- to the issues of the environment and poverty.”

According to the newsletter, “the Archdiocese of Washington's Environmental Outreach Committee has created a particularly useful new tool: a calendar that lists 40 carbon-fasting measures individuals can take to reduce their carbon footprint.” The newsletter provides a link to the full calendar.

The calendar contains suggestion for each of the 40 days of Lent, beginning on Ash Wednesday, Feb. 17, with “Remove one light bulb from your home and live without the light for the next 40 days.” Other suggestions include, “Turn down your thermostat by at least one degree;” “Check windows and doors for a draft…” “Making travel plans? Consider getting there without flying;” “Check the tire pressure of your car today;” “Learn about mountaintop removal mining;” “Show reverence for life and for the Earth today by obeying the speed limit…”

The bishops’ newsletter cited Daniel Misleh, executive director of the Catholic Climate Covenant, as saying the calendar is "another way to care for creation and aid the poor… it's challenging, asks for sacrifices and to be more mindful of patterns of consumption. It's a new twist on Lent."

And here is that "Carbon Fast Calendar";
http://www.cacatholic.org/images/stories/pdfs/lenten-carbon-fast-calendar-2010.pdf

Sadly, you just can't make this shit up!

For the benefit of any new commenters who have come across this post and are now frothing at the mouth with righteous outrage, I'll state the following; If the Church sees mundane items such as abortion, gay marriage, our pornographic culture and some other minor cultural ills go the way of the dodo I'll be happy to support crap like this. But IMO we've bigger fish to fry (now someone will cite the pollution frying some fish sticks will cause, just watch).