Gulf Pine Catholic
•
October 10, 2014
3
Gulf
Pine
Catholic
(ISSN No. 0746-3804)
October 10, 2014
Volume 32, Issue 3
The
GULF PINE CATHOLIC
,
published every other week, is an
official publication of
the Catholic Diocese of Biloxi.
Editorial offices are located at
1790 Popps Ferry Rd.,
Biloxi, MS 39532.
Periodical postage paid at
Gulfport, MS.
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GULF PINE CATHOLIC
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—PUBLISHER—
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—EDITOR—
Terrance P. Dickson
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Shirley M
c
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Debbie Mowrey
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OCTOBER 16, 10 am
Bishop Morin’s
Calendar
Oct. 11 Notre Dame Seminary Gala
& Auction, 6-10 pm
Oct. 12 Mass, Nativity BVM
Cathedral, 11 am
Oct. 26 Mass, St. Michael Parish,
Biloxi, 50th Anniversary of
the Church, 10 am
Oct. 26 Lumen Christi Awards,
Benediction, Nativity BVM
Cathedral, 2 pm
Oct. 30 Foundation Presentation,
Great Southern Club,
Gulfport, 6 pm
Only public events are listed on this schedule
and all events are subject to change. Please
check with the local parish for further details.
Jesuit keeps love of creation, justice for the poor
foremost in life
BY DENNIS SADOWSKI
Catholic News Service
RAVENNA, Ky. (CNS) -- There’s a twin-
kle in the eye of Jesuit Father Albert Fritsch
as he looks at the small orchard of plum and
apple trees on the grassy field that runs be-
tween his home and St. Elizabeth Church,
where he has served as pastor for the past 10
years.
The trees are not large and it will be at
least a few more years before their harvest is
something to brag about. But by starting an
orchard, Father Fritsch is showing his parish-
ioners the importance of appreciating what
nature can share.
“We’re creating our own forest here,” he
said. “We’re trying to put different things
here. We’d like to get it down to where you
don’t have to mow the yard so much. And
we’re wanting to put an herb garden in. We
just haven’t gotten around to it yet.”
If that’s not enough, he also grows much
of his own food.
Father Fritsch, who turns 81 Sept. 30,
sees nature as a gift to value and protect so
that it continues to give life.
A Kentucky native who grew up on a
farm outside of Maysville near the Ohio Riv-
er, the Jesuit with a shock of white hair has
spent a lifetime immersed in nature. His love
Jesuit Father Jack Kieffer ducks
under a small door beneath his home
in Livingston, Ky., Aug. 21 to check on
a composting toilet. The Appalachia-
Science in the Public Interest center, also
in Kentucky, advocates that simple living
and renewable energy are what best help
the environment.
CNS photo/Tyler Orsburn
of the earth has led him to become an outspo-
ken environmental advocate. He’s known for
promoting sustainability and simple living
and posing hard questions about corporate
actions that maximize profit to the detriment
of the earth’s resources.
He calls his ministry Earth Healing.
From a website --
.
org -- to occasional public appearances and
a series of books connecting spirituality and
social change, Father Fritsch has tapped his
Appalachian roots to share his belief that “to
be poor is to be noble and called to make
radical change.”
“I was never a capitalist in my life,” he
told
Catholic News Service
in the dining
room of the parish rectory overlooking the
orchard. “I always despised people who were
getting large amounts of money and I always
thought the money always belonged to all the
people and the natural resources. Even from
the earliest time I could not believe that peo-
ple could sequester and take in huge amounts
(of money) and others could not have much
of anything.”
Father Fritsch’s website offers daily re-
flections on creation and commentary on is-
sues of the day. He claimed the site has got-
ten more than 1 million hits a month over the
past year.
Illustrating his commitment to living sim-
ply, Father Fritsch lives on $3 to $4 a day, the
same as the typical food stamp recipient.
His path has taken him to Cincinnati,
NewYork, Chicago, Austin, Texas, Washing-
ton and back home to Kentucky. He said each
stop brought him closer to understanding the
importance of respecting the earth. He also
said he came to realize that protecting the
environment involved more than pointing to
ill-advised corporate practices but also the
need for individuals to change their hearts
and minds.
It was as a student at Jesuit-run Xavier
University in Cincinnati that he was im-
pressed with the work of several priests and
recalled thinking “that could be a life for me
too.” He was ordained in 1967.
A chemist by training, Father Fritsch
learned from his parents to carefully use, and
reuse, materials form the earth. There was
little waste on the family farm.
“I was interested in (the environment) be-
cause I was taught that. There was no trash
that went out. Everything was recycled. We
were builders too. We would smash the glass
and put it into the concrete that we would
have. We didn’t believe that there was such
a thing as a place to send your materials,” he
said.
After post-doctoral studies in 1970, he
worked as a science consultant at the Cen-
ter for Study of Responsive Law alongside
Ralph Nader in Washington for a year and
then as co-director of the Center for Science
in the Public Interest from 1971 to 1977. But
Appalachia called. He said he realized that
Washington, with its excess, was not the best
place to promote simplicity. At the time, sur-
face mining was ramping up to extract coal.
So Father Fritsch returned home to, he said,
help heal the countryside and ease the effects
of rampant poverty.
“I’m the fifth generation, on my mother’s
side, of Appalachians,” he said. “I do feel it’s
our land. Not just they, but us. It struck me.
We are bedridden, we have problems. When
somebody is ill you go back to them.”
Father Fritsch started Appalachia-Sci-
ence in the Public Interest in Mount Vernon,
50 miles south of Lexington. He and a small
staff taught people about creating healthy
land and building sustainable communities.
Programs welcomed adults and children
alike. He coordinated research and set up
demonstration projects to reconnect people
with nature.
Like the cordwood house with the com-
posting toilet and rain barrels that collect wa-
ter for daily usage.
Jesuit Father Jack Kieffer, 79, has lived
in the house near Livingston, Kentucky, for
years. A former chemical engineer, he volun-
teers at the Appalachia-Science organization
and shares ideas with visitors on how to in-
clude native herbs and plants in their diet and
grow their own food.
SEE ENVIRONMENT-FRITSCH, PAGE 15
