"Why don't they speak out?" Faced with the savage persecution of Christians and other religious minorities in Syria and Iraq, that is a question one often hears as the atrocities of the so-called Islamic State continue in the name of Islam.

Eight years ago this Friday Sept 12 Pope Benedict XVI delivered a lecture at the University of Regensburg in Bavaria in which he seemed to diagnose Islam as a religion inherently flawed by fanaticism It was an undiplomatic assertion to say the least.

I, a Catholic and a Jesuit, am grateful for this Muslim holy season for challenging me to be a more dedicated child of God.

Our conversations, especially those about the nature of God and our relationship with God, led me to an understanding of the similarities between Islam and Catholicism. Our smiles grew wide when the words of biblical and Koranic stories about Abraham matched up almost perfectly.

Always try to do too much must be taken as one of Salman Rushdie's mantras and he certainly lives up to it here This sprawling story flashes back and forth from pre-World War II Strasbourg to present-day Los Angeles touchesat least fleetinglyon every major world crisis from the Holocaust to

A study by Creighton University’s Center for Marriage and Family in 1999 indicates that today roughly 40 percent of all Catholics marry non-Catholics.