VATICAN CITY – Not only is there a good deal in common between Muslims and Christians, but Catholics are called to respect and work together with those who practice the Muslim faith in recognition of truth and goodness they do possess, said Islam scholar Fr. Thomas Michel.

For centuries during Lent, Christians have sought to grow closer to God through praying, fasting and giving to the poor.

MOSUL, Iraq – After years of darkness, hope has returned to Telekuf-Tesqopa. Located 26 kilometres from Mosul, the village is rebuilding after being liberated from ISIS.

Our society tends to divide us into winners and losers. Sadly, we don’t often reflect on how this affects our relationships with each other, nor on what it means for us as Christians.

MADRID, Spain – Father Alberto Gaton is the chaplain of a Spanish ship that combats human trafficking by rescuing people in the Mediterranean Sea. In the span of almost 5 months, his team has managed to rescue more than 3,000 people.

The following is Sabrina Quartarone’s third place essay for the 2017 Friars’ Student Writing Awards contest:

“For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died”— 2 Corinthians 5:14. What does this verse mean and how does it relate to Christian reconciliation?

Pope Francis has called on Christians to overcome the self-centred mindset of the doctors of the law who know only how to condemn. His words came at the morning Mass in the Casa Santa Marta.

BANGUI, Central African Republic – Blindfolds secured tightly, more than a dozen men and women are led by their partners around leafy plants and trees in the compound of an international charity.

WASHINGTON – Global persecution of Christians has risen for the fourth year in a row and is on a “rapid rise” in Asia, the advocacy group Open Doors UK warned on Wednesday in its annual report on Christian persecution.

Christian life is simple; a Christian does not need to do strange or difficult things, but put Jesus at the centre of his or her daily choices.

MOSUL, Iraq – As villages on Iraq’s Nineveh Plain are liberated from Islamic State forces, the Christians who lived there have returned, only to find destruction and betrayal.

KAFANCHAN, Nigeria – Islamist violence and terrorism has killed more than 12,000 Christians in Nigeria, destroying some 2,000 churches. Boko Haram has perpetrated the bulk of the killings, but in the past year a new source of Islamist terror has hit the country in the form of the Fulani Herdsmen Terrorists (FHT).

JERUSALEM – Administrators at the Technion, a public research university in Haifa, are rushing to defend the presence of a Christmas tree in the campus’ student union building.

WASHINGTON – Rohingya Muslims in Burma, as well as Christians, face continued persecution, destruction of homes and places of worship, and threats to their lives, human rights organizations are warning.

WASHINGTON – As Christians in the Middle East look back on 2016, they wonder if there will be much to celebrate amid mounting challenges, particularly for those displaced by conflicts in Iraq and Syria.