Divine intervention

The residents of two small villages in the Swiss Alps have appealed to the Pope to put in a good word for them with God.

Residents of the two neighboring villages of Fiesch and Fieschertal took a solemn vow way back in 1678 to lead good and blameless lives in exchange for God's protection against being swallowed by Europe's largest glacier as it grew towards their valley.

To reinforce their prayers, they started holding an annual procession in 1862, when the glacier reached its longest point during the mini Ice Age Europe suffered in the mid-19th century.

Perhaps occasionally some members of the community slipped up because the villages have suffered "countless, horrible natural catastrophes" during the last three hundred years, according to the local pastor, Reverend Pascal Venetz.

But they took their vow very seriously. Female inhabitants were even once forbidden to wear colored underwear lest it might provoke the glacier.

Glacier is melting rapidly due to global warming

Now, however, the villages have the reverse problem. Instead of dreading that the Great Aletsch glacier will swallow them, the ice mountain is now melting at such a rate that it is feared that flooding will one day destroy all the homes in the valley.

The glacier base is shrinking up the mountain by some 30 meters annually, according to the conservation body Pro Natura.

It is estimated that the river of ice has retreated some 3.4 kilometers since peaking in 1860 at a length of 23 kilometers. Nearly half the shrinkage has taken place since 1950.

Vows are made to be changed

The mayor of Fiesch, Herbert Volken, came up with the idea of trying to alter the vow after witnessing changes in the glacier and its surrounding environment.

Reverend Venetz said he would ask the local bishop to seek Pope Benedict XVI's permission to change the vow, so that God could now be asked to reverse the effects of global warming which is being blamed for the thaw.

It appears the request is being taken seriously. A statement from the cantonal government of Valais, where the villages are situated, said a papal audience was planned for September or October.

td/AP/Reuters
Editor: Susan Houlton