Vatican

Leo XIV’s papacy is off to a surprisingly promising start

17 May 2025 9:00 am

Rome In the days before the conclave that elected Pope Leo XIV, traditionalist Catholics were so worried about interference from…

The Pope’s funeral was symbolic of the man

26 April 2025 5:31 pm

The funeral of Pope Francis is perhaps his last chance to set his mark on the papacy. The ever so…

Does China have Vatican City in its sights?

22 March 2025 9:00 am

Last Sunday the Vatican released the first photograph of Pope Francis since his ordeal began. He was wearing a stole…

The strange beauty of the vigil for the Pope

1 March 2025 9:00 am

Steady rain during the day stopped just before Monday’s evening prayers for Pope Francis in Saint Peter’s Square. A line…

We need safeguarding from safeguarders

11 January 2025 9:00 am

What does it mean, in practice, to say that reporting child abuse should be mandatory? It sounds appropriately severe, but…

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