Catholic Sisters Fight a Fossil Fuel Pipeline with a Cornfield Chapel Blockade
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Mark Clatterbuck, associate professor and Chair of the Department of Religion, has published an article within the Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture. It appears in the March 2022 edition and is titled “Catholic Sisters and Cornfield Activism: The Fight for Green Religious Rights ”. Clatterbuck’s current research explores the intersection of religion and environmental justice. He teaches courses including Native American Religions, Religious Experience, Interreligious Encounters, Christian Liberation Theologies, Religion and Social Activism and Introduction to Religion.
Article Abstract
Since 2016, the Adorers of the Blood of Christ, an international order of Catholic women, have partnered with a grassroots movement called Lancaster Against Pipelines (LAP) to resist construction of a $3B fracked-gas pipeline in rural Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Together, the groups built an outdoor chapel blockade that became a locus of earth-honoring ceremonies and a pilgrimage site for eco-activists in the region. It also served as the focal point for a series of peaceful direct actions against pipeline construction that resulted in twenty-nine arrests. The Adorers– LAP partnership is an important case study in a growing movement of faith-fueled environmental activism across the United States today. Specifically, it offers valuable lessons on the possibilities for creative grassroots cooperation across religious divides, the use of religious ritual as a tool of resistance, the experience of women who often lead these movements, and current trends in judicial responses to faith-inspired eco-activism.