Patriarch calls for sacrifice to save Earth

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By Julia Duin

Preserving the planet is linked to saving the human soul, the leader of the world's Orthodox Christians said Wednesday at the Brookings Institution.

In a 25-minute speech that included quotes from "The Brothers Karamazov," former Vice President Al Gore and Russian Orthodox St. Seraphim of Sarov, the black-robed Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew urged a roomful of about 120 listeners to make sacrifices to protect the environment.

"Many argue that the wealthy nations of the West became so by exploiting the environment -- they polluted rivers and oceans, razed forests, destroyed habitats and poisoned the atmosphere," said Bartholomew, the archbishop of Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul).

"But now that the poorer nations are developing and improving the quality of life for their citizens ... all of a sudden the rules are being changed and developing nations are being asked to make sacrifices the nations of the West never made as they were developing. They are being asked to reduce their impact on the environment -- in other words, to curb their development. They are being asked to drive fewer cars, consume less oil, build fewer factories, raze fewer forests and harm fewer habitats -- all in the name of protecting the environment.

"Brothers and sisters -- this simply cannot be," added the man dubbed "the green patriarch" by Mr. Gore.

Bartholomew said, "Not only is it unfair to ask the developing nations to sacrifice when the West does not -- it is futile. They care not what we say -- they watch what we do. And if we are unwilling to make sacrifices, we have no moral authority to ask others, who have not tasted the fruits of development and wealth, to make sacrifices."

He then lauded the Obama administration for signing an executive order ordering government agencies to set 2020 greenhouse gas reduction goals and by spending $500 billion a year to encourage energy efficiency.

The patriarch, who is the "first among equals" among the heads of the world's Orthodox churches, acknowledged that environmental gains will require sacrifices but made a religious argument that sacrifice is a worthy Christian goal in itself.

"Sacrifices will have to be made by all," he said. "Unfortunately, people normally perceive sacrifice as loss or surrender. Yet, the root meaning of the word has less to do with 'going without' and more to do with 'making sacred.'

"Just as pollution has profound spiritual connotations, related to the destruction of creation when disconnected from its Creator, so, too, sacrifice is the necessary corrective for reducing the world to a commodity to be exploited by our selfish appetites. When we sacrifice, we render the world sacred, recognizing it as a gift from above to be shared with all humanity -- if not equally, then at least justly."

The leader of 250 million to 300 million Orthodox Christians also revealed that his patriarchate plans to establish a Center for Environment and Peace in a church-owned orphanage on Buyukada, a resort island near Istanbul.

Although the orphanage was closed by the Turkish government "in an act of religious intolerance," he said, the European Court of Human Rights ruled in 2008 that the property must be returned to the Orthodox Church.

The Turkish Embassy did not immediately reply to a request for a response. However, this past August, Patriarch Bartholomew visited the orphanage along with Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan.

The patriarch, who spent his first of three weeks in the United States at an environmental symposium in New Orleans, usually grants no interviews. But he did appear Monday evening on PBS' "Charlie Rose Show" for an hourlong segment.

The environment, he said on the show, is as much a concern for theologians as it is politicians.

"It shows our relation to God and his creation," he said. God's "creation is sacred and we have to protect it, according to the first book of the Old Testament."

Before returning to Istanbul on Friday, Bartholomew has slated visits to Capitol Hill, to Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.'s residence and with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. On Tuesday, he met with President Obama.