Pope Benedict XVI has made it clear that he would like to end the almost universal prohibition on celebration of the Tridentine Mass. He has run into some opposition, and the reasons are worth examining. One of the few exceptions to the prohibition was an indult (the technical term for permission to deviate from Church law) obtained by the bishops of England and Wales, which gave individual bishops in those countries the power to authorise the rite on specific occasions. The funeral of an elderly priest was often cited as an example. But the English and Welsh bishops were aware that the Tridentine Rite was regarded in some ultra-conservative quarters as the only valid form of Mass. In a wider constituency than that, it was still regarded as a flag of defiance against the whole Second Vatican Council. So they have been careful to limit its use to situations of pastoral need, so that it did not become the focus of an undeclared schism.

They are said to be passing on to the Pope the benefits of their experience of that indult, to help him shape the change in canon law that would be required. There is one important lesson they have learned: that the bishops must be allowed to keep control, to monitor the use of the rite, and to prevent altar being set up against altar. Indeed, some of the things being said by supporters of the rite who are eagerly looking forward to the Pope's proposed motu proprio are a warning of what could happen. Some Catholics hold to, and expect others to observe, a very narrow definition of the faith. Theirs is a kind of Catholic Puritanism which, like the Protestant Puritanism of the seventeenth century, tends towards scrupulosity and even, on occasion, bigotry, witch-hunts and paranoia.

This is not just theological conservatism but cultural too. They want to reinstate not just the words of the Tridentine Rite but its ambience and choreography - the priest with his back to the congregation muttering in Latin; the people following as best they can ...

Cafod, the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development, is a success story the Catholic Church in England and Wales can be proud of. Indeed, such is the quality of its staff that Lesley-Anne Knight, head of its international office, has just been elected secretary general of Caritas Internationalis, the world's second-largest aid organisation after the Red Cross. She succeeds Duncan McLaren, who in an interview with ...

Democracy is not entirely understood by the Catholic Church. During the 2004 presidential election in the United States, certain Catholic bishops intervened to warn Catholic electors not to back Senator John Kerry because, despite his personal opposition to abortion, he refused to impose that view via legislation. They threatened to withhold Holy Communion from him if the opportunity presented itself. That was the ...

The snatching of a small child from its loving parents is an unfathomable act of evil, which is why the world has been so moved by the plight of the McCann family these last four weeks - moved also by their dignity and faith, and by their utter determination to restore their four-year-old daughter Madeleine to their arms. Any minute their search could end in the joy of her recovery or the grief of finding her dead ...