And your post has given me hope.  We need hope.  

But maybe I'm wrong. I doubt it though.

That made me laugh out loud.  FWIW, I agree with you... it's just funny.

It is not altogether clear what John Paul II meant, exactly, by that word.  A Jesuit expert on Islam who teaches in Rome, in a recent interview currently up on Commonweal Magazine's website, correctly pointed out that the desire for reciprocity is not a Christian virtue; total generosity is.  It is true that many Catholics are annoyed that in Saudi Arabia, for example, Christian practice is by the law prohibited from being any more than a catacombish affair.  Still, the Jesuit says, Catholics should not demand the freedom to worship openly in Muslim-majority countries as a condition for beginning dialogue with Muslims.

On Benedict's quote from the Emperor Manuel Palaiologos, and on the falling into Muslim hands of a huge piece of property, from Afghanistan to Morocco, in a matter of decades (I doubt it was accomplished through a brilliant campaign of direct mailing and well-planned TV spots), I most definitely have opinions.  But they are in conflict with the hopeful mood of the conference and of Dan Worth's post, so I shall keep them to myself.  At least the words of the Islamic Society of North America are fair enough: generally, Muslims in control have been tolerant of non-Muslims (which means we must consider exceptional the current state of affairs in Saudi Arabia and Iran, as well as displays of anti-Christian violence in Egypt, Pakistan and Iraq); they have certainly been more tolerant than Christians.

I was unaware that so many Presbyterians identify themselves as conservative.  Perhaps that is a function of membership distribution and regional differences.  Here in the Northeast, they tend to be liberal, I think.  But at my Presbyterian mother-in-law's church in Springfield, MO, one of those places with a claim to being the buckle on the Bible Belt, they fit right in.

It is good to know that the Catholic Bishops have this thing called the Environmental Justice Program.  I have never heard of it, though, which just goes to show it is not really a top-priority item on the Bishops' agenda.

One distracting error that Dan might try to correct next time: the ranking "Presbyterian, Catholic, Christian" is logically incorrect.  "Christian" designates a larger category which includes both "Presbyterian" and "Catholic" as members within that category.  The unqualified adjective "Christian" should not be used to designate Evangelical Protestant Christians.  That has been done in the media, but it is inaccurate, and it is offensive to other Christians who are not Evangelicals.

Chickens are our cousins! So are other sensitive animals! Enough is enough! No more factory farms!