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Going Green? Pope Benedict XVI Gets His First Electric Car

Sep. 5, 2012 6:10pm Billy Hallowell

Pope Benedict XVI Gets His First Electric Car | Renault Kangoo

Pope Benedict XVI is presented with an electric car in Castel Gandolfo, in the outskirts of Rome, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2012. The 85-year-old pontiff was presented with his first electric car on Wednesday, a customized white Renault Kangoo for jaunts around the gardens of the papal summer residence at Castel Gandolfo. AP Photo/L'Osservatore Romano)

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI is now a bit greener. The 85-year-old pontiff was presented with his first electric car Wednesday, a customized white Renault Kangoo for jaunts around the gardens of the papal summer residence at Castel Gandolfo.

Benedict has been dubbed the “green pope” for his environmental concerns, which have been a hallmark of his papacy. He has written of the need to protect God’s creation in his encyclicals, and raised the issue on his foreign trips and in his annual peace messages.

Under his watch, the Vatican has installed photovoltaic cells on its main auditorium and joined a reforestation project to offset its carbon dioxide emissions.

But now the pope has his own ozone-preserving electric car, which he used on Wednesday to travel from the helipad at Castel Gandolfo through the gardens back to his palazzo. He was returning to his retreat in the Alban Hills south of Rome after presiding over his weekly general audience in the Vatican.

Pope Benedict XVI waves to faithful as arrives to lead a Mass at Revolution Square in Havana, Cuba, Wednesday March 28, 2012. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

Earlier this year, Italian automaker NWG donated an electric car to the Vatican, but it was for the press office to use. Renault on Wednesday also turned over the keys to a blue version of the Kangoo for the Vatican gendarmes to tool around Vatican City.

Though Benedict’s Renault is white and carries the papal seal on its doors, it isn’t a popemobile. Mercedes-Benz, which makes the customized popemobile with bullet-proof windows for the pope to use on trips outside the Vatican, has been studying a hybrid, energy-saving model.

The Rev. Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, said the pope’s Kangoo isn’t customized with such security features since it’s designed for use inside Vatican territory at Castel Gandolfo.

In Italy, prices for the boxy Kangoo start at (EURO)15,900 ($20,000), according to Renault’s website.

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Comments (25)

nonliberal
Posted on September 6, 2012 at 7:03pm
The pope better hope it don’t catch on fire .

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Viejoken
Posted on September 6, 2012 at 5:53pm
Aren’t plants just coal in it’s earliest stages?

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Viejoken
Posted on September 6, 2012 at 5:50pm
Well, so much for an intelligent Pope. Even he can be fooled. I wonder why God didn’t create a green earth and green people to begin with.

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CatoZilla
Posted on September 6, 2012 at 3:01pm
Green is ******** walking to the bath houses.

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cantstandlibs
Posted on September 6, 2012 at 2:04pm
So “green” describes a car fueled by coal, with the additional energy transformations robbing efficiency by the extra steps. The “green” is money exchanging hands between govt & crony industry. And “green” leaving my pocket.

gasoline powered car:
chemical >> kinetic (car moves)

electric car:
chemical >> kinetic (power plant) >> electrical (transmission losses occur here) >> kinetic (car moves)

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Tigress1
Posted on September 6, 2012 at 9:19am
It seems that the Pope has been educated about the Obama administration, his healthcare mandate, and how they are taking away the freedom of religion. Now the Catholics need to educate the Pope on the Green Movement, Global Socialism/Communism and the New World Order, and how that will ultimately take away mankind’s GOD GIVEN rights.

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Diane TX
Posted on September 6, 2012 at 2:59am
The last great Pope was the Polish Pope – John Paul II.

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- RobbieTLHughie
  Posted on September 6, 2012 at 7:05am
  The one that said evolution was real? Hmm… OOPS.
  
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- by faith
  Posted on September 6, 2012 at 9:12am
  Your statement is partially true
  Pope JP2 said for those parts of evolution that can be proved it is not incompatable with Catholic teaching.
  “In his encyclical Humani Generis (1950), my predecessor Pius XII has already affirmed that there is no conflict between evolution and the doctrine of the faith regarding man and his vocation, provided that we do not lose sight of certain fixed points…. Today, more than a half-century after the appearance of that encyclical, some new findings lead us toward the recognition of evolution as more than a hypothesis. In fact it is remarkable that this theory has had progressively greater influence on the spirit of researchers, following a series of discoveries in different scholarly disciplines. The convergence in the results of these independent studies—which was neither planned nor sought—constitutes in itself a significant argument in favor of the theory.”
  In the same address, Pope John Paul II rejected any theory of evolution that provides a materialistic explanation for the human soul:
  “Theories of evolution which, because of the philosophies which inspire them, regard the spirit either as emerging from the forces of living matter, or as a simple epiphenomenon of that matter, are incompatible with the truth about man.”
  
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- RobbieTLHughie
  Posted on September 7, 2012 at 12:53pm
  Exactly, most American protestant Christians don’t believe in evolution at all.
  
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Metalstr8jckt
Posted on September 6, 2012 at 1:14am
Hope and Change: The Real Estate and housing market will change to ‘Greener’ homes [ Think grass, mud ] construction like in Sub-Sahara region. Transportation and fuel issues will lessen. [Chinese make bicycles, and India, Vietnam and Cambodia, perfected Ox-carts - also fits into Michelle's no-animal protein philosophy.] And cow pies are a renewable fuel source for cooking! She promotes healthy eating so your subsistence patch of land will produce some of your caloric needs and the administration will drop off commodities to you from Air force one as they jet over your community on the way to Maui. Bringing us down to the level of the rest of the world. Forget “nation building.” We will let the communists ( China, Russia ) do that. We are “changing” to socialist’s as per the plan of the Hawaiian and his traitors.

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teddrunk
Posted on September 5, 2012 at 10:45pm
Maybe he should worry less about his car polluting and more about his priests molesting.

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- Metalstr8jckt
  Posted on September 6, 2012 at 12:37am
  Molestation increases emissions of colonic greenhouse gasses. The victims physicians see “red” as a by product. The biggest lie is that the “community” responsible for those heinous acts attempt to place blame on the Catholic faith as the originator of the vile behavior and fail to accept that “indoctrinators” were turned into eunuchs in past societies after committing the offense as a mercy [ rather than penalty of death ] ordered by the courts as directed by the papacy. [ Historical facts are amazing .]
  
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- JACKTHETOAD
  Posted on September 6, 2012 at 6:09am
  Teddy, you’re really on a roll. Don’t you know that the Pope that banned Preists from marrying ( I think it was Constantine) was either a molester or a muslim sympathizer himself? Talk about TOTAL ABUSE OF POSITION! Threaten little BOYS with eternal damnation to get their sick perverted way. Why God hasn’t taken these BASTARDS OUT YET HIMSELF I can’t explain. I just kinda wish He’d get on the stick already. It’s laying ruin to Jesus’ Holy Church. (Yo, Big Guy, what’s the deal? So many normal, healthy men waiting to serve You and Your Son. I’m sure they can tend to their family and flock at the same time. It’s way ‘Pastor’ time for a change….hope You know I’m just kidding…)
  
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CROCK-HANDLER
Posted on September 5, 2012 at 8:05pm
Let’s compare electric golf carts to gas golf carts. Most every one i know has a gasser. Wonder why?

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wingedwolf
Posted on September 5, 2012 at 6:44pm
Yeah, wait till he finds out how many coal-fired plants it takes to charge up that “green” car! Bwaaaaahahahahahahahahaha!!!! Stupid frickin’ eco-nazis!

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- Metalstr8jckt
  Posted on September 6, 2012 at 12:56am
  These liberal idiots fail to understand that the world ran on coal for 100 years from the start of the Industrial revolution. Plants need CO2 and give us oxygen in return. liberals failed at hard “science” but received a diploma with honors for merely attending communist lectures on political “science” and advancing Marxism repackaged as modern social justice. Blood is Marxism’s trail and the world swims in it every time, there is a “cultural awakening.”
  
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TROLLMONGER
Posted on September 5, 2012 at 6:40pm
And yet the ultra right wing Beckbots are still stuck in the stone age.

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- TheEDGE
  Posted on September 5, 2012 at 6:59pm
  And your stuck in your gay Prius while we stoneagers zip past you in our luxury sedans sitting next to our hot wives.
  
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- Metalstr8jckt
  Posted on September 6, 2012 at 12:47am
  Electric cars are advanced “technology”? Okay Trollmonger; show me the “clean” battery technology that makes electric vehicle superior. If 80 million Americans “owned’ Prius’s or leafs; The rolling Blackouts on the grid would happen instantly the second they arrived home and plugged in. Your Hawaiian hero is not building power plants except green ones, which produce the least amount of power. Maybe next, we will be importing all the bicycles the Chinese parked since the democrats built their Military-Auto-Industrial complex. They buy millions more cars than anyone now. 2nd biggest user of oil too. Go ahead and blame America you Traitor-troll.
  
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- RobbieTLHughie
  Posted on September 6, 2012 at 7:02am
  TheEdge is pretty much the mentality of a lot of Conservative bullies, that he’s still the cool dude in high school with the hot girl and he’s making fun of the nerdy smart guy by being insulting and yelling, a lot.
  
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pissantno.10
Posted on September 5, 2012 at 6:34pm
it wont be long when he says screw this where is my mercedes

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ktmrider1
Posted on September 5, 2012 at 6:23pm
I hope the pope’s not in it when it gos up in flames

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- RobbieTLHughie
  Posted on September 6, 2012 at 7:04am
  Funny, I’ve never seen an electric car go up in flames? In fact, everyone I know who has one quite likes it and I know for darn sure the pay less for gas than you. Or wait… Maybe you have one too and you’re ashamed to admit it, because you like to keep up this weird little farce that makes you feel like you fit into the conservative spectrum.
  
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Sirfoldallot
Posted on September 5, 2012 at 6:17pm
Is the pope smoking dope ? He has a golf cart aready

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