Difficult days in the heart of Europe

Amid appalling wind and rain, Pope Benedict joined his brother for a nostalgic pilgrimage to Mariazell. But elsewhere there was concern that he was ignoring problems faced by a Church still sore from scandal and suffering decline in numbers...

?The visit was fine but I feel like saying, ?What now???

Pope Benedict's first remarks addressed to Austria's Catholics were seen as an encouraging sign, writes Christa Pongratz-Lippitt. On the papal plane it was reported that he had thanked them for remaining faithful despite the crises the Austrian Church had been through. However, this early promise was not fulfilled on the remainder of the trip....

Dizzy with spin

The thinking of the advertising industry is guiding modern politics, with party leaders relying on a growing band of advisers to sell them to the public. But as the party conference season gets under way the strategy is having the opposite effect...

A faith lost in time

Ethiopia?s ancient Orthodox Church, which celebrates the second Millennium of Christ?s birth this year, has been described as an island of Christianity surrounded by a sea of Islam. But the glory of the Church?s past, with its long-held and rigid traditions, is threatening its ability to embrace the opportunities for the future that the jubilee offers...

Life beyond the lychgate

Some 10,000 English rural churches face a bleak future, their imminent demise hastened by the well-meaning but dead hand of conservationists. What is needed, argues one of the country?s leading historians, is to bring them back to the centre stage of their local communities...

On not being good enough

It is our fear-driven ego that makes us try too hard to give the impossible 110 per cent. How much better it is sometimes just to be grounded in God...

The nuclear option

As evidence grows of the threat of global warming, the row over cleaner forms of energy escalates. The Government?s public consultation over nuclear power has sparked the bitter opposition of some environmentalists, but here one physicist argues that nuclear is the moral option...

Delivered and brought to redemption

In a return of our series on the opening prayer, Daniel McCarthy examines the collect for the Feast of the Triumph of the Cross, celebrated on 14 September...

Twitch on the thread

Many Catholics who have strayed from the Church fold for a variety of reasons need only a sincere invitation to bring them back into the parish community. On the eve of Home Mission Sunday, the Bishop of Nottingham describes a new campaign designed to extend that crucial welcome...

Unique calling of Europe

In this extract from a speech given to politicians and diplomats in Vienna last week, Pope Benedict XVI highlights the achievements of Europe and the risks it faces in the future if it allows itself to be cut off from its Christian roots...

Odds on, there'll be a problem

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