Catholicism
Fresh air and fascism in the Bavarian Alps
The village of Oberstdorf lies in the Bavarian Alps, geographically remote but, as this gripping book demonstrates, deeply etched by…
Friend of Elizabethan exiles: the colourful life of Jane Dormer
Thomas Cromwell’s biographer Diarmaid MacCulloch once told me that my father’s family, the Dormers, had been servants of the great…
A tale of forbidden love: Trespasses, by Louise Kennedy, reviewed
Kenneth Branagh’s Oscar-winning recent film Belfast chronicles the travails of a Protestant family amid sectarian conflict in 1969. Louise Kennedy’s…
Is the Virgin Mary being sidelined by Rome?
The Catholic church has always venerated Mary (‘Mother of God’) above other saints. But in recent years there has been…
Poland’s abortion culture war is a battle for the country’s soul
This week it emerged that a hospital in the city of Białystok in Poland refused to grant an abortion to…
Profound and original and unashamedly religious: Midnight Mass reviewed
I was turned on to Midnight Mass by Ricky Gervais who raved about it in one of his social media…
Why I left the Church of England: an interview with Michael Nazir-Ali
Michael Nazir-Ali on his decision to join the Catholic church
Pope Francis is losing his culture war
Since I wroteabout the Pope’s declaration of war on the Old Rite, something unexpected and beautiful has happened. Many bishops…
The word ‘mother’ isn’t offensive. The Catholic church should say so
I’m used to waiting for the Catholic church to make sense. I’m a convert to Catholicism, and Catholic ideas sometimes…
Orcadian cadences: celebrating the reclusive poet George Mackay Brown
Maggie Fergusson on the reclusive poet George Mackay Brown
Audiences don’t want woke: comic-book writer Mark Millar interviewed
James Delingpole talks to comic-book writer Mark Millar about the joy of Catholicism, our sorry lack of male action figures and his childhood superpower
In defence of Flannery O’Connor
I have a thought for the students of Loyola University in Baltimore, Maryland: this Easter, why not resurrect Flannery O’Connor?…
Community music-making is the jewel in the British crown
Community music-making is the unifying jewel in the British crown, says James MacMillan
In America, politics has become a form of religion
When I finally head back to church this weekend, after a year of Covid-avoidance, it is going to feel a…
The Pope really doesn’t like Republicans
Last week we learned that Pope Francis has torn up the Catholic Church’s teaching that same-sex civil partnerships are gravely…
Godforsaken: religion is vanishing from American politics
The United States has always been the world’s leading religious marketplace. Even before independence, the American colonies were more fervently…
Amy Coney Barrett is the ultimate Walmart soccer mom
The biggest takeaway from the 2016 presidential election was that Main Street America was so sick of elites in Washington…
Downside’s downfall: the dissolution of a monastery
The dissolution of a monastery
How the Catholic church betrayed the dying
Of all the sad and surreal things to happen in the past few months, the Catholic church’s decision to abandon…
The woke war on religion
Though you wouldn’t know it from most American media outlets, the phenomenon of vandalizing and burning religious sites which is…
Black mass: the Georgetown Lecture Fund’s odd diversity campaign
The New York Times’s opinion editor resigned in disgrace earlier this month following a newsroom revolt over the publication of…
Why are musicologists so indifferent to their subjects’ love lives?
People often say that the battle for male gay rights has been won, at least in the West, and that…
Getting coronavirus does not bring clarity
I had thought that actually getting the coronavirus would bring clarity — that there would be some satisfaction in meeting…
Why I changed my mind about Catholicism
I grew up in a traditional English family, surrounded by cousins, chivvied by aunts, presided over by my grandmother, who…
The Pope is wrong to change the Lord’s Prayer
Is the pope a Catholic? You have to wonder. In the old days, a pope’s remit was modest: infallible, but…
