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The Pope, gay blessings and the Rupnik scandal
Pope Francis's much-hyped 'synod on synodality' began in Rome this week and to say that it has got off to a rocky start is putting it mildly. On Mond…
2 years, 9 months ago
Genghis Khan and the Pope's summer of madness
Earlier this week, the Rome correspondent of the Times found himself mugging up on the history of Genghis Khan's Mongol Empire, and this is what he r…
2 years, 10 months ago
The future of churchgoing in the West: why Protestants should worry and Catholics should panic
King Charles III is the first British monarch to inherit a post-Christian kingdom. Less than half of his subjects identify themselves as Christian, a…
2 years, 11 months ago
Is 2023 Pope Francis's 'Year Zero'?
Conservative Catholic critics of Pope Francis are referring to 2023 as his 'Year Zero' – a time of revolutionary upheaval initiated by an 86-year-old…
2 years, 11 months ago
Escaping the atheist hell of North Korea
For 75 years, the most anti-Christian regime in modern history has thrown its citizens into prison camps if they are suspected of the slightest disse…
3 years ago
Inside the world's most vicious liturgy wars
In the ancient Syro-Malabar Church of south India, clergy who try to change the liturgy do so at their peril. At St Mary’s Cathedral Basilica in Erna…
3 years ago
Succession: five nightmares for the next pope
A charming octogenarian who plays ruthless games with the people who think they're going to succeed him: I reckon Logan Roy would have recognised a k…
3 years, 1 month ago
The Vatican and the Mafia – why Italy can't seem to shake off organised crime
The Sicilian Mafia is one of the most murderously amoral organisations on the planet – yet babyishly sentimental when it comes to Italian peasant Cat…
3 years, 1 month ago
How Protestant is the Coronation?
The Coronation in Westminster Abbey is the only occasion at which our monarch declares himself or herself to be a Protestant, thus ensuring that no C…
3 years, 2 months ago
Why didn't Beethoven go to Mass?
Ludwig van Beethoven had a profound faith in God. He was born and raised a Catholic and on his deathbed he asked to receive the Last Rites. He told t…
3 years, 3 months ago