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A Mountain Pilgrimage in Neon Kentucky

The Advent Liturgy surrounds us with images of mountains mirroring God's caring presence and constant love for his people. But today along one of the most beautiful mountain ranges in the world the Appalachian Mountaiss are being ravaged unmercifully by the process called mountain top removal. This process legitimized by our government cripples the mountains and causes floods and destruction along their valleys. A group of concerned citizens thought it was high time to pray to the powers of heaven to move the powerful on earth to stop the devastation.

On December 10, 2002 Benedictine Sister Rosalyn Soller joined a group of concerned citizens from five appalachian states to rebless the mountains and provoke attention to this great tragedy. Many of the participants brought personal experiences of their homes which had been flooded last July. The Benedictine Sisters house in Neon,KY was one of these.

Prayers were offered in the tiny Neon Church of Corinth. The pastor testified to the "new kind of flooding" experienced last July directly caused by mountain top removal. Letcher County's chief judge executive, Carrol Smith spoke movingly of the dilema. He said, "I do not believe that my having a job means that my neighbor's house must be flooded".

A pilgrimage followed to the top of the McRoberts mountain where the people have already been flooded three times since July. No words were possible as the group viewed the mountain's destruction and silently mourned the ravages of greed. Finally they spread wild flower seeds over the sludge ridden ridge with the vain hope that "the turtle dove may yet return to our land."

Read the resolution calling for a moratorium on mountaintaop removal passed by the Catholic Committee of Appalachia.

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