Fr Leonardo E Dollentas
In 2018, the 42 parishes of the Diocese of Maasin (a 4th class component city and capital of the province of Southern Leyte, Philippines) switched to renewable energy, becoming the first ecclesiastical territory where all churches use solar energy.
The Vatican document Journeying Towards Care for our Common Home acknowledged the efforts of this diocese in Southern Leyte province for leading the Church in the use of solar energy.
The document read: “The Diocese of Maasin has become the first diocese in the world to equip all parishes with solar panels.” The document also contains “best practices” of the different countries and organizations across the globe on caring for the planet. It was drafted by the Holy See Interdicastery Table on Integral Ecology, which was created in 2015 to evaluate ways to best promote and implement integral ecology.
The efforts of the Diocese of Maasin were inspired by Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato Si’, officially published on 18 June 2015, urging all faithful around the world to put their Christian faith into action to protect the environment. It offers “an orientation to the action of Catholics in the secular dimension and to ask every Christian to examine their own behavior, also in everyday life.”
The Solar Energy project in the Diocese of Maasin was realized through a partnership with WeGen. This company specializes in rapidly advancing renewable energy, battery storage, and software technologies to develop energy solutions for a range of applications including homes, businesses, government institutions, schools, and churches.
Diocese of Maasin Bishop Precioso Cantillas said that shifting to solar allowed them to save at least P100,000 a month in power bills—resources that the diocese can use to support other socio-civic programs. Other dioceses that started adopting the renewable energy option claimed that their system does not have battery storage. They are still connected and rely on the grid, meaning – during the day the solar panels power up their buildings, and when the sun sets, they are hooked back to the existing power grid.
For a number of other dioceses, however, the technology for battery storage remains expensive, pushing them to forgo this option. With this dilemma, Jun Cruz, the director of relations of WeGen Laudato Si steps forward with an assurance: “Our projects are small compared to other companies, but even if it’s a small parish on an island that only requires 3 kWp (kilowatts peak – the rate at which solar panel systems generate energy at peak performance, such as on a sunny day in the afternoon) we install our panels because our vision is really clean and affordable energy, anytime, everywhere, for everyone.”
Bishop Gerardo A. Alminaza of San Carlos, Negros Occidental, who envisioned a more sustainable energy path for his diocese and the entire Negros Island believes that church leaders like him can truly make a difference and rally their flock behind a good cause, the survival of the planet, of which humans are the stewards: “The challenge I see is for the Catholic population to wake up. Ecological conversion takes a while… and even with consecutive calamities, people still don’t see yet the connection [of our actions to the planet]. But we cannot say we love God, and then neglect and keep destroying the environment,” he affirmed. (Photo: St Joseph College in Maasin City)
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