Light Up the Night -- A Faith Community Acts Together
St. Bridget Human Concerns Ministry, Richmond, VA

Light Up the Night, a campaign of the St. Bridget Human Concerns Ministry in Richmond, VA, gave parishioners the opportunity to purchase energy-efficient compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) to replace inefficient existing incandescent light bulbs. Members at St. Bridget got a head start on complying with the new energy law passed by Congress on December 19, 2007, which requires the incandescent light bulb to be phased out of the U.S. market beginning in 2012.  If each of the 2,500 St. Bridget families purchased a 15watt CFL (equivalent to a 60 watt incandescent), the parish would prevent 824 tons of CO2 from entering the atmosphere over the life of those bulbs. CFLs were sold after all Masses during the last three weekends of January 2008.

The Human Concerns Ministry issued a Call to Action in their Light Up the Night Brochure:

In a 1931 encyclical, Pope Pius XI wrote about subsidiarity, the principle that the smallest or least central unit of government should exercise political power.  The problem of global climate change takes this principle one step further in that all levels of government, every institution and business and indeed, all of us as individuals will need to be engaged. For starters, individuals should accept their own responsibility. Without waiting for anyone else to act, each of us can make an impact by working to save energy, producing less CO2, and, in the case of switching to CFLs, saving money. A brochure from Dominion power states that “CFLs use about 75% less energy than traditional incandescent bulbs, and can last up to 10 times longer.”

The slogan of Light Up the Night campaign was: Buy Compact Fluorescent Lights and Save Money, Energy and Help Heal God’s Creation.

Light Up the Night promotes the following:

Care for God’s creation is one of the seven themes of Catholic Social Teaching. Catholic tradition insists we show respect for our Creator through stewardship of our Earth. Caring for the Earth is not merely an Earth Day slogan, but a requirement of our faith. God calls us to protect people and the planet, living our faith in relation to all of God’s creation. Stewardship of the Earth entails fundamental moral and ethical dimensions that we cannot ignore. — US Bishops

Contact: Paul Amrhein
Human Concerns Minister
St. Bridget's Church, Richmond, VA
Contact via email...