Vatican
Does China have Vatican City in its sights?
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
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
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
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?
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
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
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
Francis’s haphazard reforms risk sparking a Catholic civil war
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.…
Watch out Pope Francis: the Catholic civil war has begun
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
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
Trendy commentators have fallen in love with a pope of their own invention
