Prayers For Glacial Melt In Swiss Mountain Towns Finally Effective After 300 Years - New Text Needed

[hatrack]

Roman Catholics in two southern Swiss Alpine communities want to give up a centennial tradition of praying for the retreat of mountain glaciers and switch to prayers against climate change instead. "A lot of ice has melted," parish priest Pascal Venetz told the Swiss news agency SDA on Thursday.

Father Venetz is seeking the approval of Pope Benedict XVI for the change on behalf of his parishioners and an audience for the local bishop is reportedly being arranged in Rome.

Since the end of the 17th century, the faithful in the districts of Fiesch and Fieschental have blamed the nearby Aletsch glacier, the longest in the Alps, for flooding and prayed for it to melt.

EDIT

Drought is now regarded as a potential threat.

EDIT/END

http://www.terradaily.com/2007/090806122004.2yy4caum.html

[kestrel91316]

1. God to the people of Fiesch and Fieschental: Make up your fucking minds!

[provis99]

2. and Jesus rolls his eyes...

"For these schmucks I was nailed to the cross?"

[hedgehog]

3. There are a lot of places in Switzerland where you can see

settlements from Roman times and before that were wiped out by the advance of glaciers during the little ice age. The Swiss I know are getting nervous because they are seeing less and less snow cover in winter and shorter ski seasons.

[damntexdem]

4. Be careful of what you ask for, and all that.

And think of the logic: to prevent flooding, they wanted glaciers to melt. Hmm.