Pope Francis
Britain is stuck in a fertility trap
Pope Francis wants you to have sex. Or at least he wants Italians to have more sex. The country, he says,…
Cardinal Pell’s righteous fury at the Vatican’s theological direction
Cardinal Pell, a former head of Vatican finances, does not criticise Pope Francis directly in the piece he’s written for…
What is Pope Francis up to?
If you think your diary looks busy over the next few days, spare a thought for Pope Francis. The 85-year-old,…
Pope Francis has betrayed Cardinal Zen
When Cardinal Joseph Zen, the 90-year-old former Bishop of Hong Kong, was arrested by Chinese authorities on Wednesday and charged…
The truth behind the Pope Benedict inquiry
How are we to interpret the revelation that Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI misled a sex abuse inquiry? That might seem an…
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 Pope's merciless war against the Old Rite
I am going to have to boil this down as crudely as I can, because it’s a complex subject with a…
What the Pope's visit means for Iraq
You could be forgiven for taking a cynical view of Pope Francis’s visit to Iraq this weekend. How could the…
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…
The real reason for Pope Francis’s disgraceful Pompeo snub
Why did Pope Francis refuse to meet Secretary Pompeo in Rome this week? The obvious answer is that he didn’t…
The Pope rebuffs his liberal supporters by rejecting married priests
Pope Francis today issued his official response to October’s ‘Amazon Synod’, which discussed a plan to ordain married men in…
Wildly entertaining Pope-off: The Two Popes reviewed
The Two Popes stars Anthony Hopkins and Jonathan Pryce — that’s two reasons to buy a ticket, right there —…
Abba, Twitter vs Instagram, and papal selfies: the modern face of the Catholic Church
As a lifelong Catholic, I’ve often thought that two of the Church’s chief characteristics are a) how weird it is…
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…
An exposé of high-ranking gays in the Catholic Church bears the fingerprints of the Pope’s closest advisors
The publication of In the Closet of the Vatican by the French gay polemicist Frédéric Martel has been meticulously timed…
Pope Francis raises the white flag
Just before Ireland voted overwhelmingly to end the country’s constitutional ban on abortion, Catholics in the fishing village of Clogherhead…
A tale of two Sarahs: the cuddly bishop vs the terrifying cardinal
If you’re looking for a snapshot of the state of global Christianity today, a good place to start would be…
Why local radio is thriving
It’s 50 years since the first local radio stations were launched by the BBC in yet another instance of the…
Islam’s “barbaric fury”
Andrew Urban has lived up to his famous namesake, Pope Urban II (1088-1099), in his warnings that evil thrives when…
Let’s vote ‘in’ to renew the EU, says Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor
There is more to the idea of Europe than narrow economic considerations. The Remain side needs to say so
The beginning of the end for Pope Francis
What the Pope didn’t just say about divorce
A film that dares to suggest that paedophile priests may be capable of holiness
Damian Thompson admires a Chilean film about paedophile priests which, unlike Spotlight, dares to explore social and psychological complexities
Pope vs church - the anatomy of a Catholic civil war
Francis’s haphazard reforms risk sparking a Catholic civil war
This year, Catholic conservatives are ready for Pope Francis
Where will Francis's Synod on the Family take the Church?
The people who really need the Pope's help
On Tuesday, Pope Francis set foot in the United States for the first time in his life. His plane touched…
