Vatican

Pope Benedict helped me know and love Christ

2 January 2023 4:40 am

It was Benedict XVI’s election as Pope, his speeches and his writings that prompted my conversion, and it was his…

What is Pope Francis up to?

27 August 2022 4:00 pm

If you think your diary looks busy over the next few days, spare a thought for Pope Francis. The 85-year-old,…

Beautiful and revealing: The Three Pietàs of Michelangelo, at the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, Florence, reviewed

5 March 2022 9:00 am

The room is immersed in semi-darkness. Light filters down from above, glistening on polished marble as if it were flesh.…

The truth behind the Pope Benedict inquiry

27 January 2022 1:00 am

How are we to interpret the revelation that Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI misled a sex abuse inquiry? That might seem an…

Pope vs church - the anatomy of a Catholic civil war

7 November 2015 9:00 am

Francis’s haphazard reforms risk sparking a Catholic civil war

Why Pope Francis could be facing a Catholic schism

11 April 2015 9:00 am

It’s not just Vatican infighting any more. Pope Francis has a potential schism on his hands

Let there be light: Saint Peter’s at dawn

Rise early to see the Vatican at its best

28 March 2015 9:00 am

The sun has only just risen in Rome and we are standing bleary-eyed in a short queue outside the Vatican.…

Watch out Pope Francis: the Catholic civil war has begun

8 November 2014 9:00 am

Uncertainty over how much reform Pope Francis wants is splitting his church into factions

Tom Holland's diary: Alex Salmond is the Scottish referendum's answer to Shane Warne

13 September 2014 9:00 am

I feel a bit about the Scottish referendum as I did about the 2005 Ashes series. In both cases, those of…

Sorry — but Pope Francis is no liberal

11 January 2014 9:00 am

Trendy commentators have fallen in love with a pope of their own invention