Vatican calls for talks with Muslims on Crusades; Rev. Jim Ball and the environment

In Friday’s RNS report Stacy Meichtry writes that the Vatican wants discussion with Islam on the Crusades: In the midst of global anger over cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, the Vatican’s top mediator with Islam is pushing to heal long-festering historical wounds-the Christian Crusades and the Muslim conquests of medieval Europe. “It is a question […]

In Friday’s RNS report Stacy Meichtry writes that the Vatican wants discussion with Islam on the Crusades: In the midst of global anger over cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, the Vatican’s top mediator with Islam is pushing to heal long-festering historical wounds-the Christian Crusades and the Muslim conquests of medieval Europe. “It is a question that needs to be addressed,” said Archbishop Michael Fitzgerald, president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, in an interview Thursday (Feb. 16) with Religion News Service. Fitzgerald, who is slated to soon become Pope Benedict XVI’s ambassador to Egypt and the Arab League, also rejected a call from an Italian lawmaker for the Vatican to lead a showdown with Islam. Instead, Fitzgerald called for Vatican and Muslim scholars to examine the legacy of Christian-Muslim confict to build historical consensus. The Rev. Jim Ball, leader of an evangelical campaign for the environment, speaks to Alexander Lane about his new initiative: The Rev. Jim Ball has gotten 85 other Christian evangelical leaders to launch a national campaign against global warming, a feat that just might make him the most important environmentalist of 2006. The Evangelical Climate Initiative, which Ball organized with a handful of other like-minded Christians, declared the “basic task for all of the world’s inhabitants” is to cut emissions of heat-trapping carbon dioxide. The group has irked some influential evangelicals but thrilled mainstream environmentalists. In an interview, Ball answers Christian critics and explains the brand of environmentalism he calls “creation care.”

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