Spain?s identity crisis

Thirteen years on from the last papal visit to Spain, Benedict XVI arrives in Valencia next Saturday. He will find a nation increasingly secular and at odds with the Church in matters of marriage, mass consumerism and religious education...

For the love of a son

A year ago next Friday, 52 Londoners lost their lives and hundreds were injured by suicide bombers. One mother stood for all in that day?s grief. Marie Fatayi-Williams tells of her loss and her faith...

Not just one brief, shining moment

A year after billions roared for Africa, much has been achieved. Debt has been slashed, and aid boosted. But there is much still to do, especially in the reform of unfair trade, which would make the biggest difference of all...

Diplomatic shift

With the early announcement of the Vatican?s new Secretary of State, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is once more in the ascendant in Rome where many now predict doctrine will be paramount...

For the love of football

There is religious fervour in the beautiful game and commercialism aplenty, says The Tablet?s reporter in Germany, Denis Campbell, but the US fans must stick to the vocabulary...

Escape from a black and white past

The number of children born to Americans and immigrants from different backgrounds and cultures is growing all the time, and the old notions of race are slowly disappearing. There is a lesson here for the Church ? if it wants to hear it...

America?s summer of discontent

The default mood of the United States is optimism, but this year the gloom and disillusionment are almost tangible. It would seem to provide a golden opportunity for the Democrats ? but that is not necessarily the case...

De profundis

In a powerful and personal polemic, an Anglican priest based in America here laments what he argues is the death of the Episcopal Church. But there is hope, he says, in a new and ecumenically open Anglican Communion speaking with one voice...

It?s OK to mention George W?

? Washington, that is. He and the other Founding Fathers, after decades in the historical wilderness, are being rediscovered by a new generation of Americans...

Liberating light

The opening prayer for this Sunday expresses simply, directly and powerfully that the way out of darkness is through the truth and radiant splendour of God, who is the guardian of our souls and, in loving us, makes us children of light...

Get ready to make a holy promise

When couples come for marriage preparation, there are real opportunities for a deepening of the faith, despite all the other issues they inevitably have on their minds ...

Denis Faul

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Pearls from the Sea

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