The Christian is not saved by faith alone (Jas 2:14-26), but by grace alone (Eph 2:8-9) through a faith that is not mere belief, but through a faith that is completed by obedience (Rom 1:5, 16:26) and love (Gal 5:6), that is, by keeping the commandments of the Lord (Jn 15:6-10; Gal 5:17-21) and working out salvation in acts of charity and goodwill (Mt 25:31-46; Phil 2:12-13). Indeed, faith is never without works.

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It will be the largest place of worship in Europe, a gigantic three-storey Islamic centre, with schools and other facilities, able to hold at least 40,000 worshippers and up to 70,000 if necessary.

Aguilar alleged the cardinals transferred a Mexican priest to the United States in 1987 despite knowing that he had a record of molesting minors in Mexico.

The families are being heavily fined; the parents are being jailed; the children are being threatened with being seized and placed in the custody of the state; and families are being forced to flee to Austria and other surrounding countries.

"the victory of love over hate and evil".

"We are living in a time of war... It's them or us. The West did not attack Islam, it was they who attacked us." "We must face up to an Islam that is ambitious, that is radical and that influences the Muslim world, a fundamentalist Islam that we must confront because we don't have any choice." "We are constantly under attack and we must defend ourselves,"

The Pope and Pell articulate an emerging Catholic view about Islam. They believe the core issues are not being confronted: the link between Islam and the state and between Islam and violence. The test is whether Islam accepts religious tolerance and whether it rejects violence. They believe Islamic doctrine and practice in parts of the world today demands such a discussion... Turning to the pessimistic side, Pell says: "In my own reading of the Koran I began to note down the invocations to violence. There are so many of them, however, that I abandoned this exercise after 50 or 60 or 70 pages."

The more muscular stance of the Catholic Church can help if it encourages genuine dialogue. Yet it will be seriously counter-productive if it damages relations between two great religions...

'The ill-chosen words of Pope Benedict XVI and the deranged response of Muslim extremists occupy two different planes of reality. That world leaders and opinion writers have said fairly little about the latter reflects not the extremists' legitimacy but merely their predictability. Carried out by a tiny splinter of the world's billion Muslims, these events get little analysis only because there's not much to say.'

'With apparently unlimited free time on their hands, the fanatics greeted the pope's words with the equivalent of a small war. They may have murdered a nun caring for sick children in Somalia. They unquestionably firebombed five churches in the West Bank, burned a papal effigy in Iraq and inspired Gaza's "Army of Guidance" to vow vengeance upon Christian targets. Is it news that a cancerous Muslim minority commits crimes under the pretext of faith?'

'Does it surprise anyone that irrational people answer ideas with violence? Finally, is there the slightest chance that fanatics care about the contempt they inspire in Westerners, including most Western Muslims? All this is why so much attention has flowed instead toward the less serious and more forgivable gaffe by the pope. As he's consistently shown, Pope Benedict reveres verbal dialogue. So while it may not be proportional, analysis of how Benedict erred is likely to be more fruitful. Plenty of other political and religious leaders, after all, may want to avoid his mistakes.'

'he pontiff erred in two ways: badly choosing his public words in a time of world conflict, and then possibly being disingenuous about why he chose them.'

'Within Benedict's long, cerebral speech to Bavarian academics, the quote that triggered the uproar indeed seems oddly aggressive. "Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman," it begins. The line fails to support any of the pope's later points. Theological tradition, meanwhile, does include the technique of making provocative statements by citing others — then safely distancing oneself from the words. That's what the pontiff said of the Byzantine quote in his speech.'

'It's impossible to know what he really intended when he crowbarred an ancient indictment of all Islam into his dense, scholarly talk. Also unknowable is why he reportedly brushed off warnings about the quote from colleagues.'

'At worst, Benedict is guilty of impolitic speech. It just doesn't compare to the blood and fear spread by those enraged by his words. Benedict, though, is a participant in the culture of free speech and conscience. Recognizing that he'd spoken badly, the pontiff chose to honor free speech's other side. He amended his words with a public apology.'

By the way, the proper to refer to 'Benedict' is Pope Benedict XVI. Have some respect.

This is not the only time the Houston Chronicle editorial page has gotten mostly everything wrong about religion, Christianity in particular.

"The pope has a Muslim problem all right. It is the hammering that Christian communities have been taking for years and are getting now in Islamic countries all over the world, but especially in the Middle East."

"Across the region (with some exceptions), non-Islamic minorities--which by and large means Christian minorities--are being driven out through physical abuse, legal discrimination, murder and the destruction or confiscation of homes, businesses and churches. Call it religious cleansing. It is a political strategy that would eventually give Iran, Iraq, Egypt and the Holy Lands of Palestine a cultural homogeneity that has never existed in human history, before or after Christ."

Is the pope wrong to imply--in a rather roundabout way--that there is today something amiss inside Islam, as a community of believers sharing one faith and a long, common cultural tradition? There probably isn't a single liberal editor at a major American or European paper who doesn't think that there is something a little dysfunctional--a disposition that tolerates, if not encourages and admires, violence as expression of religious outrage--among young Muslim males from Northern Europe to Indonesia... Many Muslims know it too, even if they are not inclined to say so publicly--it's often dangerous and always enormously difficult for believing and nonbelieving Muslims to aggressively critique their own when they know non-Muslims are listening. Self-described Muslim intellectuals (often meaning the traditionally devout, clerics) really have a hard time engaging in self-criticism that fortifies non-Muslim critiques of Islamic society... And self-confidence is a huge problem. Militarily triumphant in the past, traditional Muslims had an easier time being tolerant toward the minorities in their midst; they certainly were unperturbed by the theological arguments and invective put forth by practitioners of a superseded faith. As many believing Muslims have become less self-confident--and the world around them has become ever more incongruent with the imagined, pure world of early Islam, when the faithful were unceasingly victorious because they were more perfect in their submission to God's will--they have become more acutely conscious and aggressive about their Muslim identity. Clerics in London, Copenhagen, Cairo or Tehran dictating terms about the appropriate comportment of non-Muslims toward believers has naturally followed... Pope Benedict nailed two facts about Islam that are contributing factors to the faith's very rough entry into modernity. The prophet Muhammad, the model for all Muslims, established the faith through war and conquest. His immediate successors, the Rightly Guided Caliphs, whom traditional and radical Muslims cherish, reinforced Islam's identity as a victorious faith through the rapid creation of a world empire...

"For 12 years I wandered in the wilderness, went through a divorce and struggled with questions about my direction. Then suddenly and movingly, I had a revelation about the connection between the work I was doing as a public servant and my formative teachings,"

"The pickle that some of these liberal policymakers find themselves in is, they know that faith is important to people, but when they get pinned down on their policy positions that are inconsistent with the tenets of their faith, they start hedging and talking about other factors in their decision."

"At this time I wish also to add that I am deeply sorry for the reactions in some countries to a few passages of my address at the University of Regensburg, which were considered offensive to the sensibility of Muslims,"

"Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached."

Religious leader Ali Badda Kolu said the Pope's comments represented what he called an "abhorrent, hostile and prejudiced point of view".

"I believe this treaty should be linked to Christianity and God because Christianity was decisive in the formation of Europe."

Thomas À Kempis (1380-1471) had a wide knowledge of the Scriptures and classical philosophy, and although most of his life was spent in a Dutch monastery, he also possessed a deep understanding of human nature. His acquired wisdom convinced him of man's complete dependence on God's love and the empty futility of life without it.

There are two wings that raise a man above earthly things – simplicity and purity. Simplicity must inspire his purpose, and purity his affection. Simplicity reaches out after God; purity discovers and enjoys Him. No good deed will prove an obstacle to you if you are inwardly free from uncontrolled desire. And if you are free from uncontrolled desires, and seek nothing but the Will of God and the good of your neighbor, you will enjoy this inner freedom. If your heart be right, the every created thing will become for you a mirror of life and a book of holy teaching. For there is nothing created so small and mean that it does not reflect the goodness of God.