In Pennsylvania’s rural Lancaster County, a group of nuns has staunchly refused to let an energy company build a natural gas pipeline through a cornfield – a place the whole community cherishes. Now the company is appealing to ’eminent domain’ as a way to work around their protest and build it anyway.
The nuns replied “not so fast” and, on July 9th, built a chapel right in the path of the proposed pipeline. If the company were to go forward with their construction they would have to destroy a consecrated site of worship.
These Catholic nuns are part of a larger, worldwide group called the Adorers of the Blood of Christ, founded in 1843, whose mission it is to make environmental activism and protection an integral part of their religious work. All over the world communities where the Adorers reside have agreed to operate under their principles of ecological justice.
“[The pipeline] just goes totally against everything we believe in — we believe in the sustenance of all creation,” 74-year-old nun Linda Fischer told The Washington Post.
This activism has spurred people of many faiths to come by and show solidarity with the nuns. Composed of 8 wooden benches, an arbor and a pulpit, the chapel is a symbolic stance. Yet more than 300 people showed up to stand in straw and dirt as they witnessed its consecration.
If the construction of the pipeline is continued, the nuns vowed to hold 24/7 vigil at the chapel, reading inclusive, inspiring passages by Pope Francis.
