... and then everything crazy converged into "eco-confessions"

Meet Dom Anthony Sutch (far right), a Benedictine monk, who will be attending a Greenpeace festival in the UK this weekend "to hear eco-confessions in what is thought to be the first dedicated confessional booth of its kind."

Yes, you read correctly: "eco-confessions". The UK Times reports:

Vested in a green chasuble-style garment made from recycled curtains, and in a booth constructed of recycled doors, he will hear the sins of of those who have not recycled the things they ought to have done and who have consumed the things they ought not to have done.

... He told The Times: “It is not, I hope, blasphemous to do this. I do not think it is. It is just an attempt to make people conscious of the way they live. The Church is aware of green issues and of how aware we have to be of how we treat the environment.

... “I’ve had one or two comments about abuse of the confessional. One or two people have said, ‘Father, is this quite right?’ Luckily, more people see it as an excellent idea. As with all these things, we have to look in the mirror and see what we could stop consuming ourselves.”

My questions: is he actually trying to administer sacramental confession to folks who have not turned their lights out at night? I think this sort of thing scandalous, in the first place because it constitutes a mockery of the sacrament. Now look what he did to his home parish:

"Father Sutch tries to practise what he preaches but has turned the heating down so low at his church of St Benet’s that at least one parishioner has fled to the warmer care of a neighbouring priest for winter services."

... Father Sutch said that he tried “very hard” to live a green lifestyle but admitted that it was difficult. “I try not to turn on my heating but people come and stay with me and demand it. I get attacked for having a cold church. I have cut my electricity bill by 30 per cent.

Who is letting him get away with this? Turning down your heating as a penance is one thing. Turning it down (because you are motivated by fears about global warming) to where your parishioners are adversely effected is something else entirely. I'm sorely tempted to add this to my rapidly-expanding "For Shame!" list.

Update: Others have now noted this story:

• Father Forgive Me - I Threw an Aluminum Can in the Trash (Curt Jester)
• Bless Me Father, For I Have Not Recycled (Cafeteria is Closed)

And I have added this to my "For Shame!" list, as you can see on the sidebar. Looney-tunes!