The patriarch of Venice is urging Catholics in the Italian city to give up bottled water for the Christian fasting season of Lent. Angelo Cardinal Scola wants them to donate the money saved to a water pipeline project in Thailand. He is being backed by the mayor, who says he drinks only tap water and calls bottled water an unnecessary luxury.

BBC News, Feb. 12, 2008 (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7240387.stm)