By Robert Alan Glover
The Passionist monastery in Louisville — part of the Holy Cross Province headquartered in Illinois — is one of several Passionist sites that have shifted to solar energy in the past few years.
Sacred Heart Monastery launched its solar energy project in 2022, consisting of 60 panels on the roof of its car port.
“We had considered using generators at first, but ruled them out due to size and maintenance decisions,” said Passionist Brother John Monzyk, the monastery’s superior.
He said they opted to go with solar panels that charge two batteries and provide backup energy for the kitchen and pantry areas, essential for keeping food safe.
The province is one of two Passionist provinces in the United States that have looked to solar energy to power their work in response to Pope Francis’ encyclical “Laudato Si’,” which teaches on the relationship between God, humans and the Earth in caring for creation.
The Passionist provinces are working with Catholic Energies, part of the Washington-based Catholic Climate Covenant, which helps Catholic facility owners start
solar energy projects.
Dan Misleh, the founding executive director of Catholic Climate Covenant, said Catholic Energies “seeks to assist Catholic facility owners with solar energy projects, and we also encourage Catholic clients to use their new solar array as a teachable moment, reminding their constituents of the need to care for God’s creation — a core principle of Catholic social doctrine.”
The organization also works with Mission Energy, a for-profit company that manages the nonprofit Catholic Energies program.
Father Jim O’Shea, the provincial for the Passionists of St. Paul of the Cross Eastern Province headquartered in Jamaica, New York, said, “Converting to solar energy from traditional energy has been a big change for our order, and Catholic Energies has two priorities when working with its clients: the creation of clean energy and the saving of money.”
Catholic Energies has converted Passionist sites in New York, West Hartford, Connecticut, and San Juan, Puerto Rico.
“We have worked closely with Catholic Energies because they run the whole project,” Father O’Shea said. “We contribute the land — or make it available to them — (for) potential construction, and provide the actual places to put the panels, which in this instance were our monastery’s car port, the rooftop of our school and an open field.”
At the Louisville monastery, which houses seven priests and brothers, the solar investment can annually account for savings of a few hundred dollars by June, according to Brother Monzyk.
The move to solar also protects the monastery financially from the upward trajectory of energy costs. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the average monthly electric bill for residential customers increased 13% from 2021-2022, or 5% after adjusting for inflation. Extreme temperatures and
higher fuel costs for power plants, the agency said, have played a significant role in driving up electric bills.
Besides savings, another key benefit of this changeover is that maintenance is minimal.
Father Joe Mitchell, who resides at the Louisville Passionist community and is president of the Passionist Earth and Spirit Center — a 27-acre nature sanctuary that offers courses, workshops, summer camps, retreats and ecological service opportunities — said that many leading environmental thinkers have called the pope’s 2015 encyclical “one of the greatest documents of its kind.”
He said, “It highlights perhaps the most pressing needs of our time, especially in how it focuses on the care and non-exploitative sharing of our common home — which is the Earth.”
