Catholic Standard: Catholic Charities’ solar array blessed, seen as model for ecological action by church groups
by Mark Zimmermann, Catholic Standard
The sun shone on Catholic Charities, literally, on Oct. 17, as Archbishop Wilton Gregory blessed a solar array being installed on five acres of the agency’s land surrounding the Missionaries of Charity’s Gift of Peace home. The array of 5,072 panels is expected to be completed and operational by early 2020, and will be the largest such solar project built thus far in Washington, D.C.
“The Lord gave us a beautiful day to celebrate something pretty special for us,” said Msgr. John Enzler, the president and CEO of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington at a ceremony where the project’s partners spoke about its benefits. Overhead on that blustery fall day, sunlight shone through a bank of clouds interspersed across a bright blue sky, one day after rain drenched the Washington area.
Dignitaries present included Archbishop Gregory and D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, who were joined by representatives of Catholic groups and by more than two dozen of Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity sisters who care for the poor, elderly and sick at the neighboring home.