Paula González
Encyclopedia
Sister Paula González, S.C., Ph.D., (born 1932) entered the Sisters of Charity
of Cincinnati in 1954. She earned her doctorate in biology at the Catholic University
in Washington, DC, and was a biology professor at the College of Mount St. Joseph
in Cincinnati, Ohio, for 21 years.
Since 1972, Sister Paula has been freelancing as a futurist and environmentalist
, working for more than three decades to promote sustainable living
. She supported the work of the Alternate Energy Association of Southwestern Ohio, including serving as president for a while. She has developed audiotape courses in Earth-healing; has written several articles and book chapters on ecospirituality, conservation, renewable energy
, and spiritual ecology
; and has reached thousands in person by giving over 1800 presentations.
Sister Paula designed and did much of the work of converting a former chicken barn into "La Casa del Sol," a 1200 sq ft (111.5 m²) super-insulated, passive-solar house she shares with another Sister of Charity. When the temperature dropped below zero in the winter of 1985, the home temperature dropped to no lower than 50 degrees without any heater running. Sister Paula's success with solar energy earned her the nickname "Solar Nun."
Sister Paula founded EarthConnection, an environmental learning center where tours, internships, and environmental educational programs have been conducted. Located on the grounds of her congregation’s motherhouse, the EarthConnection Center was completed in 1995 and continues to showcase various renewable-energy technologies including daylighting, passive and active solar thermal, grid-tied photovoltaic, and geo-exchange energy systems. The systems are not only impressive in their variety, but also notable for the unusual "solar-assisted geothermal" configuration, where summer heat is transferred from solar thermal collectors to an insulated bed of earth around the building for use the following winter.
The American Solar Energy Society's Ohio Chapter, Green Energy Ohio, gave Sister Paula their Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005.
In 2007, Sister Paula and Keith Mills founded Ohio Interfaith
Power and Light, a coalition of religious people responding to the climate-change crisis. Ohio Interfaith Power and Light is an affiliate of The Regeneration Project's national Interfaith Power and Light campaign, which has programs in 26 states involving over 4000 congregations (as of May 2008).
1. In Medical-Surgical Nursing by Shafer et al., Ecology and Health, St. Louis: Mosby, 1975.
2. Study Guide to Accompany Textbook of Anatomy and Physiology, Reith, Breidenbach, Lorenc, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1978.
3. In The Future of Global Nuclearization, Global Nuclearization: Some Alternative Futures, New York:Joint Strategy and Action Committee, Inc., 1985.
4. In Embracing Earth: Catholic Approaches to Ecology, An Eco-prophetic Parish?, A.J. LaChance and J.E. Carroll, eds., Maryknoll, NY: 1994.
5. In Ecology and Religion: Scientists Speak, Learning from the Earth: Key to Sustainable Development, J.E. Carroll and K.E. Warner, eds., Quincy IL: Franciscan Press, 1998.
6. In Earth at Risk: An Environmental Dialogue between Religion and Science, Developing an Ethic for Sustainable Community, D.B. Conroy and R.L. Petersen, New York: Humanity Books, 2000.
Audiotape Programs
1. Healing the Earth: An Emerging Spirituality, (12-session minicourse), Cincinnati, OH: St. Anthony Messenger Press, 1991.
2. What on Earth Are We Doing? (5 hours), Kansas City, MO: Credence Cassettes, 1994.
Videotape Programs
1. Reading the Signs of the Times: Justice, Ecology and Christian Life, (2 hours), Laurel MD: Earth Communications, 1995.
2. In The Great Chain of Being: Simplifying Our Lives, Awakening to the Sacred (1 hr) and Toward a Sustainable Future (1 hr), Albuquerque, NM: Center for Action and Contemplation Summer Conference, 2007.
Journal/Magazine Articles (Selection)
1. In Momentum (NCEA Journal),"New “3Rs” for the Teacher of the 1990s", December, 1986.
2. In InFormation, "Moving into the New Millennium: Challenges for Religious", March, April, 1998.
3. In Occasional Papers (Leadership Conference of Women Religious), "Befriending Change", April, 1999.
4. In Radical Grace (Center for Action and Contemplation), "Every Day Should Be ‘Earth Day’", April–June, 2001.
5. In Earthlight (Journal for Ecological and Spiritual Living), "Living in a Eucharistic Universe", Spring, 2004.
6. In Preach, "Called to Tend the Sacred", Sept/Oct, 2004.
7. In Earthlight, "Toward A New Monasticism" Spring, 2005.
8. In Radical Grace, "Tis The Gift to Be Simple", Spring, 2007.
9. In St. Anthony Messenger, "The Our Father: Our Environmental Prayer", Oct, 2007.
Sisters of Charity
Many religious communities have the term Sisters of Charity as part of their name. The rule of Saint Vincent for the Daughters of Charity has been adopted and adapted by at least sixty founders of religious orders around the world in the subsequent centuries....
of Cincinnati in 1954. She earned her doctorate in biology at the Catholic University
The Catholic University of America
The Catholic University of America is a private university located in Washington, D.C. in the United States. It is a pontifical university of the Catholic Church in the United States and the only institution of higher education founded by the U.S. Catholic bishops...
in Washington, DC, and was a biology professor at the College of Mount St. Joseph
College of Mount St. Joseph
The College of Mount St. Joseph is a private, Catholic, co-educational college located in Cincinnati, Ohio. Also known as “the Mount,” the College was founded in 1920 by the Sisters of Charity and educates students through interdisciplinary liberal arts and professional curricula emphasizing...
in Cincinnati, Ohio, for 21 years.
Since 1972, Sister Paula has been freelancing as a futurist and environmentalist
Environmentalist
An environmentalist broadly supports the goals of the environmental movement, "a political and ethical movement that seeks to improve and protect the quality of the natural environment through changes to environmentally harmful human activities"...
, working for more than three decades to promote sustainable living
Sustainable living
Sustainable living is a lifestyle that attempts to reduce an individual's or society's use of the Earth's natural resources and his/her own resources. Practitioners of sustainable living often attempt to reduce their carbon footprint by altering methods of transportation, energy consumption and diet...
. She supported the work of the Alternate Energy Association of Southwestern Ohio, including serving as president for a while. She has developed audiotape courses in Earth-healing; has written several articles and book chapters on ecospirituality, conservation, renewable energy
Renewable energy
Renewable energy is energy which comes from natural resources such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, and geothermal heat, which are renewable . About 16% of global final energy consumption comes from renewables, with 10% coming from traditional biomass, which is mainly used for heating, and 3.4% from...
, and spiritual ecology
Spiritual ecology
Spiritual ecology is a recent term that refers to the intersection between religion and spirituality and environment . Practitioners of spiritual ecology fall into three categories: the scientific and academic, spiritual or religious environmentalism, and religious or spiritual individuals who...
; and has reached thousands in person by giving over 1800 presentations.
Sister Paula designed and did much of the work of converting a former chicken barn into "La Casa del Sol," a 1200 sq ft (111.5 m²) super-insulated, passive-solar house she shares with another Sister of Charity. When the temperature dropped below zero in the winter of 1985, the home temperature dropped to no lower than 50 degrees without any heater running. Sister Paula's success with solar energy earned her the nickname "Solar Nun."
Sister Paula founded EarthConnection, an environmental learning center where tours, internships, and environmental educational programs have been conducted. Located on the grounds of her congregation’s motherhouse, the EarthConnection Center was completed in 1995 and continues to showcase various renewable-energy technologies including daylighting, passive and active solar thermal, grid-tied photovoltaic, and geo-exchange energy systems. The systems are not only impressive in their variety, but also notable for the unusual "solar-assisted geothermal" configuration, where summer heat is transferred from solar thermal collectors to an insulated bed of earth around the building for use the following winter.
The American Solar Energy Society's Ohio Chapter, Green Energy Ohio, gave Sister Paula their Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005.
In 2007, Sister Paula and Keith Mills founded Ohio Interfaith
Interfaith
The term interfaith dialogue refers to cooperative, constructive and positive interaction between people of different religious traditions and/or spiritual or humanistic beliefs, at both the individual and institutional levels...
Power and Light, a coalition of religious people responding to the climate-change crisis. Ohio Interfaith Power and Light is an affiliate of The Regeneration Project's national Interfaith Power and Light campaign, which has programs in 26 states involving over 4000 congregations (as of May 2008).
Works
Book Chapters, etc.1. In Medical-Surgical Nursing by Shafer et al., Ecology and Health, St. Louis: Mosby, 1975.
2. Study Guide to Accompany Textbook of Anatomy and Physiology, Reith, Breidenbach, Lorenc, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1978.
3. In The Future of Global Nuclearization, Global Nuclearization: Some Alternative Futures, New York:Joint Strategy and Action Committee, Inc., 1985.
4. In Embracing Earth: Catholic Approaches to Ecology, An Eco-prophetic Parish?, A.J. LaChance and J.E. Carroll, eds., Maryknoll, NY: 1994.
5. In Ecology and Religion: Scientists Speak, Learning from the Earth: Key to Sustainable Development, J.E. Carroll and K.E. Warner, eds., Quincy IL: Franciscan Press, 1998.
6. In Earth at Risk: An Environmental Dialogue between Religion and Science, Developing an Ethic for Sustainable Community, D.B. Conroy and R.L. Petersen, New York: Humanity Books, 2000.
Audiotape Programs
1. Healing the Earth: An Emerging Spirituality, (12-session minicourse), Cincinnati, OH: St. Anthony Messenger Press, 1991.
2. What on Earth Are We Doing? (5 hours), Kansas City, MO: Credence Cassettes, 1994.
Videotape Programs
1. Reading the Signs of the Times: Justice, Ecology and Christian Life, (2 hours), Laurel MD: Earth Communications, 1995.
2. In The Great Chain of Being: Simplifying Our Lives, Awakening to the Sacred (1 hr) and Toward a Sustainable Future (1 hr), Albuquerque, NM: Center for Action and Contemplation Summer Conference, 2007.
Journal/Magazine Articles (Selection)
1. In Momentum (NCEA Journal),"New “3Rs” for the Teacher of the 1990s", December, 1986.
2. In InFormation, "Moving into the New Millennium: Challenges for Religious", March, April, 1998.
3. In Occasional Papers (Leadership Conference of Women Religious), "Befriending Change", April, 1999.
4. In Radical Grace (Center for Action and Contemplation), "Every Day Should Be ‘Earth Day’", April–June, 2001.
5. In Earthlight (Journal for Ecological and Spiritual Living), "Living in a Eucharistic Universe", Spring, 2004.
6. In Preach, "Called to Tend the Sacred", Sept/Oct, 2004.
7. In Earthlight, "Toward A New Monasticism" Spring, 2005.
8. In Radical Grace, "Tis The Gift to Be Simple", Spring, 2007.
9. In St. Anthony Messenger, "The Our Father: Our Environmental Prayer", Oct, 2007.