Allen on the Church & Islam

John Allen's recent "Word from Rome" column asks, among other things, "what would a coherent Catholic approach to Islam look like," and discusses the recent conference in Vienna, "where Cardinal Christoph Schönborn hosted a gathering of American and European intellectuals to discuss the challenge posed by George Weigel in his book The Cathedral and the Cube, where Weigel expresses a rather dim view about the cultural prospects for contemporary Europe."  Interesting stuff.  (Allen also takes about the Holy See's headaches regarding China's continued insistence on picking bishops.)

UPDATE:  Here is a related piece, by an Egyptian Jesuit, on "How Benedict XVI Sees Islam".