There was an unexpected echo of President Barack Obama at the heart of Archbishop Vincent Nichols' installation sermon at Westminster Cathedral. Spelling out what he means by calling for "respectful" dialogue in modern society, the archbishop declares: "Let us be a society in which we genuinely listen to each other, in which sincere disagreement is not made out to be insult or harassment, in which reasoned principles are not constructed as prejudice and in which we are prepared to attribute to each other the best and not the worst of motives." There was a very similar passage in President Obama's address to the "Class of 09" in his speech accepting an honorary doctorate from Notre Dame University, Indiana, this week. Archbishop Nichols' words might be construed as calling for the Catholic Church to be given a fair hearing, whereas Mr Obama was implicitly addressing his critics within the Catholic Church in America who condemn him as pro-abortion (and therefore condemn Notre Dame for honouring him). But Archbishop Nichols goes on to say: "In these matters we ourselves in the Churches have so much to learn and do." This sounds more like an appeal to his fellow Catholics to consider how they themselves engage in public controversy, in which case he is implicitly reinfor­cing Mr Obama's plea for respectful mutual comprehension.

Both archbishop and president are right, not least because minds are rarely changed by stridency, even less by abuse. The archbishop's appeal for respect comes in the sermon not long after he reminds us how St Paul had gone to the Areopagus in Athens to engage with the Greek philosophers. It was an engagement the archbishop wryly admits was not immediately successful, adding: "He struggled to find the language in which the insights and light of Christian faith can be brought into dialogue with the finest minds of his age." That too sounds like an ambition that Archbishop Nichols is modestly setting for himself, and for the Catholic community in England ...

Pope Benedict's visit to Jordan, Israel and the West Bank appears to have achieved all that he set out to achieve as a pilgrim and man of peace. He applied gentle but effective pressure on Israel's coalition Government and its Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, not to wander too far from the road map defining the "two-state" peace process, which in the view of the Vatican, Washington and most of the rest of the world, ...

As Pope Benedict flies to the Holy Land, an unholy row has broken out over allegations that Israeli forces deliberately or recklessly fired on United Nations personnel and property in Gaza during January's military action against Hamas, killing staff and civilians sheltering there. The terms of this quarrel are wearily familiar. As has happened before, most notably during action against Hezbollah in Lebanon in 2006, ...

With his organic garden at Highgrove House and his regular comments about the environment, the Prince of Wales has long been an advocate of green causes. So it came as no surprise that he raised the plight of the planet at his meeting with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican this week. The world risked "a new Dark Age", said Prince Charles, unless urgent action is taken on climate change.

He was preaching to the ...