Why Queen Elizabeth was a Presbyterian when she died
When the Queen died, she was actually a Presbyterian. That’s because she was in residence at Balmoral, and all British…
A dose of sanity
Listening to BBC Radios 3 and 4 over the past week has been like meeting an old friend who, after…
Why the Tories should gamble on Kemi Badenoch
There’s only one candidate for prime minister with the guts to dismantle the self-loathing culture of identity politics that is…
Mourning glory
On Tuesday night I was at the world première of a motet by Sir James MacMillan and I don’t think…
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…
Ever decreasing circles
The decline of male friendship
Turbulent priest
The Patriarch in league with Putin
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…
Djokovic is a conspiracy super spreader
When the world’s number one tennis player Novak Djokovic found himself locked in a Melbourne hotel because he’d entered Australia…
Selfie defeating
Narcissism already has a new obsession
Is the Pope a Protestant?
When Pope Francis was asked last month how he was doing after surgery on his colon in July, he replied:…
Ex Anglican Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali converts to Catholicism
Michael Nazir-Ali, the former Bishop of Rochester and one of the best-known Anglican clerics, could be ordained as a Catholic…
Going for Goldberg
I sometimes think the classical record industry would collapse if it weren’t for the Goldberg Variations. Every month brings more…
Memory sticks
Technology is robbing us of the power to forget
All the rage
Why have we become so quick to anger?
A dangerous madness
The QAnon conspiracy theory may be absurd, but it can’t be ignored. It has already led to significant acts of violence, says Damian Thompson
Latter-day sinners
Are Mormons prepared to ignore their troubled history?
Brendel the Dadaist
How many people are celebrating the fact that, last week, one of Europe’s most inspired writers about music, modern art…
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…
Fish and fire
Anyone who invited the Russian composer Mily Balakirev to dinner had to be jolly careful about the fish they served.…
The sinister Vatican plot against Cardinal Pell
Cardinal George Pell isn’t the sort of man to say ‘so there is a God after all!’ – but plenty…
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…
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…
What does Kamala Harris really believe?
When Joe Biden chose Kamala Harris as his running mate, the Religion News Service reported that she ‘now considers herself…
The keys to Beethoven
If you want to understand Beethoven, listen to his piano sonatas. Without them, you’ll never grasp how the same man…
