Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, in New Orleans for a conference on the environment, said “we are consuming environmental capital and destroying its sources as if there is no tomorrow.” A bankruptcy judge approved the first step of the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington’s Chapter 11 filing. An Illinois man accused of killing a pastor during a Sunday sermon is unfit to stand trial, a judge ruled.
Virginia police suspect that a Korean teenager was killed during an exorcism, spiritual seekers begged for water during the sweat-lodge fatalities in Arizona, and a Montana museum blends Genesis with dinosaur fossils. A right-wing Dutch politician took his “jihad is coming” act to Columbia University. An Iowa funeral home is going high-tech with death announcements, putting them on electronic billboards.
Underground comic artist R. Crumb has a new illustrated Book of Genesis, Mormon teenagers dressed in bonnets and 1850s-style clothing are re-enacting their ancestors’ trek across the country, and the Catholic league is angry at “The Simpsons” … again.
The Vatican’s courting of Anglicans continues to draw a lot of ink, with reporters wondering what it means for celibate clergy, Rowan Williams, and conservative Africans. The Dalai Lama is going to a part of India that China claims partial ownership of, and the Obama administration says its snub of the Tibetan leader does not signal a lack of concern for human rights.