Holy water, meet Lake Michigan.As work crews on Sunday once more tried to stem the flow of oil in the Gulf of Mexico, Bishop James Wilkowski and a small contingent from the Evangelical Catholic Diocese of the Northwest stood at the end of a pier in Chicago's Rogers Park neighborhood and offered a simple prayer to heal the sick.
Then he grabbed a wand from an ornate gold bucket and sprinkled holy water into the lapping waves.
Behind him, sunbathers looked upon the spectacle with their mouths open and a dog chased tiny sticks tossed into the lake.
"I've seen a lot of things out here, but never something like that," said Courtney Quigley, a lifeguard on duty.
"We had a baptism once, but never this."
The bishop, donning a white ceremonial smock, a pink skullcap and long, embroidered stole around his neck, gazed out over the open water.
"If BP can't plug the leak, maybe God can," he said.
In a brief and windswept afternoon ceremony at the edge of the pier at Jarvis Beach, Wilkowski prayed for the good health of the Great Lakes and for all of the waters on Earth.
It was a blessing, he said, built out of frustration as he and millions of Americans have watched the unsuccessful attempts to stop the flow of oil off the Gulf Coast.
Wilkowski, who grew up on Chicago's South Side, said he believes in the power of nature to heal itself.
He has seen it firsthand with the slow but steady recovery of the Little Calumet River from intense industrialization decades ago.
But Wilkowski worries the ever-expanding spill in the Gulf of Mexico may be too large even for nature to overcome.
That's why he paused Sunday to ask for God's help, and to recite the same blessing he gives to those he visits in the hospital.
"I believe all the waters of the world are a part of us," said the Rev. Mike Bonnett, a member of the diocese who assisted in the blessing.
"So many things are happening in the world that are not conducive to the overall health of the planet. This is one small part we could play."
SIC: CTNews