Alpine faithful pray glacier will stop shrinking
Source: Agencies |
August 7, 2009, Friday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
VILLAGERS from deeply Roman Catholic south Switzerland have for centuries offered a sacred vow to God to protect them from the advancing ice mass of the Great Aletsch glacier.
Global warming is making them want to reverse their prayers, and the Alpine faithful are seeking the permission of the pope.
Since the vow was established in 1678, the deal was simple: the citizens of the isolated mountain hamlets of Fiesch and Fieschertal would pledge to lead virtuous lives. In exchange, God would spare their homes and livelihoods from being swallowed by Europe's largest glacier as it expanded toward the valley with heavy winter snows.
Times have changed, and the once-fearsome Aletsch is melting amid temperatures that are 0.7 degrees Celsius warmer than in the 19th century. The pastor at the Ernerwald Chapel has warned that a new danger threatens. "We all know - and the Holy Father reminded us in his Easter message - that an unprecedented change in the climate is taking place," Reverend Pascal Venetz said in a recent sermon.
"Glacier is ice, ice is water and water is life," he told villagers from the Valais region, which has sent its sons to the Vatican as Swiss Guards since the 16th century. "Without the glacier the springs run dry and the brooks evaporate. Men and women face great danger. Alps and pastures vanish and towns die out."
Venetz says that many townsfolk have begun questioning the ancient vow that has been commemorated every year since 1862 in a procession to the chapel on July 31, St Ignatius' feast day. The idea to alter the vow came from Fiesch Mayor Herbert Volken, but the concern was not driven by worldly or secular impulses.
Instead, the villages "were seeing nature change all around them," and realized the glacier might soon need saving, Venetz said.
Global warming is making them want to reverse their prayers, and the Alpine faithful are seeking the permission of the pope.
Since the vow was established in 1678, the deal was simple: the citizens of the isolated mountain hamlets of Fiesch and Fieschertal would pledge to lead virtuous lives. In exchange, God would spare their homes and livelihoods from being swallowed by Europe's largest glacier as it expanded toward the valley with heavy winter snows.
Times have changed, and the once-fearsome Aletsch is melting amid temperatures that are 0.7 degrees Celsius warmer than in the 19th century. The pastor at the Ernerwald Chapel has warned that a new danger threatens. "We all know - and the Holy Father reminded us in his Easter message - that an unprecedented change in the climate is taking place," Reverend Pascal Venetz said in a recent sermon.
"Glacier is ice, ice is water and water is life," he told villagers from the Valais region, which has sent its sons to the Vatican as Swiss Guards since the 16th century. "Without the glacier the springs run dry and the brooks evaporate. Men and women face great danger. Alps and pastures vanish and towns die out."
Venetz says that many townsfolk have begun questioning the ancient vow that has been commemorated every year since 1862 in a procession to the chapel on July 31, St Ignatius' feast day. The idea to alter the vow came from Fiesch Mayor Herbert Volken, but the concern was not driven by worldly or secular impulses.
Instead, the villages "were seeing nature change all around them," and realized the glacier might soon need saving, Venetz said.
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