Going green for God.

A "defender of the faith" has gone green. Recent reports of Queen Elizabeth II and her family embracing a more sustainable lifestyle have captured the imagination of some and the cynicism of others. The queen is known for greeting commoners on her famous "walkabouts" both in her homeland and in other countries she visits, her recent visit to the United States included. Elizabeth II recently has become conscious of the "carbon footprint" she and the royal entourage create. A longtime friend to the environment, Prince Charles, her son and heir to the throne, must be very proud of his mum these days.

What about another defender of the faith, Pope Benedict XVI? Certainly his carbon footprint is not nearly as destructive as that of his globe-trotting predecessor, John Paul II. Nonetheless, as head of the church and No. 1 citizen of Vatican City, Benedict certainly is in a position to set a good example for the rest of the Catholic world. Has he toned down the lights in St. Peter's Basilica, or does he unplug the papal computer in his Vatican apartment every evening?

I don't know. But if Benedict is interested in going green, there are some excellent role models within Catholicism's long tradition to follow. Well before the Queen of England, former U.S. Vice President and An Inconvenient Truth star Al Gore, eco-theologian Thomas Berry, and many other people of note went green, religious sisters who staffed the myriad of Catholic grammar schools across this country were already practicing many aspects of a sustainable lifestyle.

Anyone who went to a Catholic grammar school remembers the habits of the sisters--not their yards of serge but their saving ways. Never did a Catholic classroom have a light left on once emptied. The nuns saw to that. Blank sides of homework paper were recycled for arithmetic seat work or those dreaded spelling tests. Drives to collect newspapers were as routine as holy days of obligation.

Some sisters believed such behavior was a sacred thing to do in and of itself. "Waste not, want not." Others sincerely believed that such saving behavior was explicitly religious. I remember one nun who told us there was a direct relationship between not wasting paper and freeing poor souls in purgatory. Although her motive was strained by poor theology, by today's green standards this nun's resultant behavior was exemplary.

Since his biographic profiles begin with his higher education, I'm uncertain if Benedict XVI went to Catholic schools run by sisters or what he might have learned. But I and many other Catholics were educated in many good, green behaviors from our teachers long before it was fashionable to worry about carbon footprints.

Should the present pope wish to go green, he has many role models in the religious sisters of bygone days.

PETER GILMOUR ([e-mail]) teaches at the Institute of Pastoral Studies of Loyola University Chicago.