You could tell how seriously the BBC was taking this update on the status of the papacy (2 October) from the choice of reporter. None of the corporation’s religious correspondents got so much as a look in; such well-known Catholic trusties as Edward Stourton and Lord (Peter) Hennessy were barred the door. The task fell instead to no less an eminence than the director of news and current affairs, James Harding. The sporting equivalent would be Rupert Murdoch descending to the Sky Sports commentary box to adjudicate on the Manchester United versus Chelsea game himself.Timed to coincide with this month’s papal summit on family life, Harding’s neatly contrived dispatch took its cue from the well-publicised friendship struck up in the course of the past year between Pope Fran