Catholicism
Benedict XVI leaves Rome to deliver a coded message to his supporters
Quietly, discreetly, the Pope Emeritus is offering a different vision to that of Pope Francis
The constant inconstancy that made Italians yearn for fascism
Jan Morris on the inconsistency and paradox that has characterised Italian thought over the centuries — and the desperate search for certainty
2067: the end of British Christianity
England’s churches are in deep trouble
BBC2's Armada has something for everybody - including three yummy female historians
It has been a while since the BBC really pushed the boat out on the epic history documentary front. Perhaps…
Social comedy Peruvian-style
Mario Vargas Llosa likes to counterpoint his darker novels with rosier themes: after the savagery of The Green House came…
Why Pope Francis could be facing a Catholic schism
It’s not just Vatican infighting any more. Pope Francis has a potential schism on his hands
Why wasn’t there more about the other faiths over Easter on the BBC?
There was no shortage of Easter music and talks across the BBC networks with a sunrise service on Radio 4…
What happened to Julie Burchill on silent retreat
What I discovered on a silent retreat
The really shocking thing about Michel Houllebecq’s Soumission — he rather likes Islam
News of Michel Houllebecq’s Soumission caused such a stir that the book was pirated online before publication. David Sexton reports on the latest literary event in France
Rugger, Robin Hood and Rupert of the Rhine: enthusiasms of the young Antonia Fraser
Despite it being a well known fact that Antonia Fraser had earthly parents, I had always imagined that she had…
Climate change, Bruegel-style
The world depicted by the Flemish master is not so different from our own, says Martin Gayford
No one in the Bible has been as elaborately misrepresented as Mary Magdalene
A bogus history book and a new oratorio turn Mary Magdalene into the wife of Jesus and a human rights activist. Damian Thompson feels sorry for the poor woman
The Tudor sleuth who's cracked the secret of suspense
Some reviewers are slick and quick. Rapid readers, they remember everything, take no notes, quote at will. I’m the plodding…
Soldier, poet, lover, spy: just the man to translate Proust
Sam Leith is astonished by how much the multi-talented Charles Scott Moncrieff achieved in his short lifetime
Fleet Street’s ‘wild Irish girl’
In her early days on Fleet Street, Mary Kenny, as she herself admits, was cast as ‘the wild Irish girl’,…
Lords, spies and traitors in Elizabeth's England
There are still some sizeable holes in early modern English history and one of them is what we know —…
Sex, secrets, and self-mortification: the dark side of the confessional
I have a confession to make. I really enjoyed this book. It’s been a while since I admitted something of…
Forgive me, Father
What Catholics really talk about in the confession box
What Englishmen learnt from Europe
A tour of the Continent was a prerequisite for young Jacobean noblemen training for statesmanship — provided they resisted its corrupting influence, says Blair Worden
The one man who makes me hope for peace in Syria
As Syria’s second peace conference looms, and we prepare ourselves for a lot of hot air drifting over from Geneva,…
Dot Wordsworth: We've been self-whipping since 1672
Isabel Hardman of this parish explained after last week’s government defeat that a deluded theory among the party leadership had…
Why G.K. Chesterton shouldn’t be made a saint
G.K. Chesterton was a great journalist, not an angel
The Breath of Night, by Michael Arditti
There is always meat in Michael Arditti’s novels. He is a writer who presents moral problems via fiction but is…
The new God squad: what Archbishop Welby and Pope Francis have in common
Evangelicals have taken charge in the Vatican and Lambeth Palace