Pope Francis
Portrait of the week
Home In his Budget, George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, slowed the planned rate of bringing in £12 billion…
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
Charles Moore’s notes: Grexit isn’t like Brexit (and that’s why it won’t be allowed to happen)
People write about ‘Grexit’ and ‘Brexit’ as if they were the same, but they need not be. Grexit is about…
In being suckered into climate alarmism, the Pope risks backing policies that hurt the world's poor
In his latest encyclical Pope Francis will apparently describe global warming as a ‘major threat to life on the planet’.…
My part in a masterpiece of political correctness
Damien Hirst, Grayson Perry, James Delingpole: all winners of major art prizes. I was awarded mine last week by Anglia…
Portrait of the week
Home Launching the Conservative party manifesto, David Cameron, the party leader, told voters he wanted to ‘turn the good news…
Scotland knows the power of a common enemy. We English don’t
When last Sunday Pope Francis took the brave step of acknowledging the Armenian tragedy as the ‘first genocide of the…
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
Rise early to see the Vatican at its best
The sun has only just risen in Rome and we are standing bleary-eyed in a short queue outside the Vatican.…
The benefits of breeding like a rabbit
Why I’m glad to have five children, with a sixth on the way
Charles Moore's notes: A matched pair of popes, and a patronising judge
Pope Francis is favourably compared to Pope Benedict in the media. I hope it is not being slavishly papist to…
Spectator letters: Why we should subsidise weddings
Let’s subsidise weddings Sir: Fraser Nelson (‘Marrying money’, 15 November) points out that marriages tend to last longer than cohabitations and…
Watch out Pope Francis: the Catholic civil war has begun
Uncertainty over how much reform Pope Francis wants is splitting his church into factions
Portrait of the week
Home David Cameron, the Prime Minister, writing of the Islamic State in northern Iraq, said: ‘If we do not act…
Revealed: The Pope's war with the Vatican
Francis really is determined to reform his church: but his targets are not the ones that liberals might expect
‘Ashtray’ Annie Fischer was a piano giant. Why didn’t more people realise this?
This year marks the centenary of a pianist whom London orchestral players nicknamed ‘Ashtray Annie’. Only at the keyboard did…
In the mood for Parsifal, my Passiontide fare
This week, I have been mostly listening to Parsifal. Not the St Matthew Passion, which is my usual Passiontide fare.…
Compassion is fashionable again. Thank the Pope
There was something poignant about the decision of L’Wren Scott, Mick Jagger’s American girlfriend, who committed suicide in New York…
Spectator letters: On the Pope, Jesus and Mandy Rice-Davies
Papal blessing Sir: In his excellent article on Pope Francis (‘Pope idol’, 11 January), Luke Coppen mentions the satirical rumour…
Alexander Chancellor: What Pope Francis and Silvio Berlusconi have in common
It’s filthy wet weather in Tuscany, so I’m lying on my bed in the afternoon reading through the Italian newspapers.…
Why G.K. Chesterton shouldn’t be made a saint
G.K. Chesterton was a great journalist, not an angel
Romans always love a Vatican scandal. But what if this time they're right?
The people of Rome have always liked to believe the worst of their bishop. When I was a correspondent in…
The new God squad: what Archbishop Welby and Pope Francis have in common
Evangelicals have taken charge in the Vatican and Lambeth Palace
