When I first imagined a 108-foot Christmas tree and 40 other smaller (just 50 feet maybe?) trees adorning St. Peter’s Square and the rest of the Vatican, I couldn't help but wondering if Pope Benedict wasn’t that green after all. How old must a 108-foot Christmas tree be? How many acres of Austrian forest were decimated for the pope?

This week a Hindu statesman eloquently praised the Vatican for having installed a 2,400-panel solar field. “We may believe in different religions, yet we share the same home—our Earth," Rajan Zed, president of the Universal Society of Hinduism, said urging all religious leaders to work on environmental issues. "We must learn to happily progress or miserably perish together.