Excerpt:
As a Vatican delegation prepares to leave for civil war-torn Syria, the Catholic Church's fraught relation with Islam has emerged as one of the main themes at a major gathering of the world's bishops in Rome.
The debate was stirred by a leading cardinal who, on Saturday (Oct. 13), showed a controversial video called "Muslim Demographics" which purports to show Islam's growing global influence. The video was shown during a Vatican-organized synod of bishops on new ways to evangelize in the modern world.
The accuracy of the seven-minute video's data and projections have been sharply disputed and criticized by experts since its emergence in 2009, but the film sparked renewed soul-searching among Catholic leaders on the church's stance towards the growth of Islam in the West and in Africa.