Santa Fe, New Mexico, Archbishop John Wester is urging the faithful to come to a full appreciation of the “gift of water,” with the archbishop’s message coming amid historic droughts and low water levels in the western state.
The archbishop’s pastoral letter, “Uniting for Our Sacred Waters,” was released this month as fears of declining water reservoirs increased in New Mexico.
It also comes shortly after Pope Leo XIV issued a prayer intention for the care of water. The Holy Father described clean water as a “blessing” but noted that 25% of the world’s population lacks safe drinking water.
“Entire communities and nations need our action and our prayer for the care of water for the blessed relief,” the pope said.
The NASA Earth Observatory revealed this summer that the Elephant Butte Reservoir, the state’s largest, had shrunk to just 1.4% capacity, its lowest since 1971, driven by persistent drought conditions and early snowmelt.
Wester in the pastoral letter urged Catholics to recognize the deep connection between water and the Catholic faith.
“We bless ourselves with water when entering and leaving our churches,” he wrote. “Just as we share and celebrate the word of Christ, we share and celebrate the sacredness of water.”
“Together, let us reflect on our kinship with our waters and how we are responsible for protecting, conserving, and restoring them,” he said.
The archbishop cited Pope Francis’ warnings in Laudato Si’ about water scarcity and a potential “acute water shortage” across the world. Wester said human society must make “moral choices” that “equitably protect people, waters, lands, and wildlife.”
He lamented what he described as the “squander[ing]” of water in New Mexico, specifically the depletion of groundwater supplies there, as well as contamination of aquifers by local military activity and nuclear weapons laboratories.
Water, the archbishop said, is “an oasis for the good of all.” God teaches that humans should both share and steward such a resource, he wrote.
The archbishop urged authorities to hold those accountable who pollute waterways and to protect water sources from future pollution. “[E]ach of us,” meanwhile, “can pay attention, pray, and act in our personal, spiritual, and political lives.”
He urged Catholics to “consider what water means to you and to envision a better future for our sacred waters — and everyone who shares in them as God’s gift.”
This is not the first environmental warning the archbishop has issued. In May he warned the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration to stop expanding production of plutonium pits, with the prelate describing nuclear weapons as “immoral” and “genocidal.”
In June, meanwhile, he similarly warned the Arms Control Association about the concept of a “just” nuclear war and lamented the lack of momentum toward nuclear disarmament.
Wester is among the Church leaders — along with Archbishop Paul Etienne of Seattle; Archbishop Peter Nakamura of Nagasaki, Japan; and Bishop Alexis Shirahama of Hiroshima, Japan — who have formed a coalition of prelates called the Partnership for a World Without Nuclear Weapons.
The bishops and archbishops all oversee dioceses or archdioceses with deep connections to nuclear technology. The Manhattan Project developed the first nuclear weapons just outside of Santa Fe in the 1940s, while Seattle is home to the largest stockpile of deployed nuclear weapons in the world.
Hiroshima and Nagasaki, meanwhile, were the first and to-date only places where nuclear weapons were used in acts of war.
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