Softly, softly

A teaching document published by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith yesterday provides a seasonal wake-up call to evangelise. But it maintains a more conciliatory tone than its ‘One True Church’ document issued last July that upset leaders of other Churches...

Kabul at the crossroads

Gordon Brown’s new aid package for Afghanistan is a rejection of a ‘muddling through’ strategy. And as our correspondent discovered, it’s a much needed policy. Unemployment is high, money has been squandered, and the Taliban is resurgent...

Converted by the pen

Newly published letters between a deeply devout poet, the Marchesa Maria Curtopassi, and one of Italy’s leading anticlerical intellectuals, Benedetto Croce, reveal the sincerity of his acceptance of the existence of God. The surprising result has been a message of reconciliation from the Vatican...

In God they trust

Religion continues to play an integral part in American politics. But, as the Mormon candidate Mitt Romney is finding out, it increasingly has to be the ‘right’ sort of religion...

We are what we build

The best design is the embodiment of our beliefs, from our notion of aesthetics to Christian ethos. And a new church building or religious house is a way for faith to engage the culture in which it finds itself. According to one architect, the nuns of Stanbrook have managed it, but others haven’t...

Transformed by God’s light

A friend’s skilful detective work enabled Wendy Beckett to track down the most elusive pre-iconoclastic icons of Mary in Rome. Among them is a Madonna and Child finally brought to light after being hidden under later layers of paint...

At the heart of hope

One of Benedict XVI’s former students and a current member of the influential Ratzinger-Schülerkreis analyses the Pope’s second encyclical, Spe Salvi, which he argues highlights the most urgent need of our day...

Hymns for a thousand tongues

‘Hark the Herald Angels Sing’ is one of our most popular carols and has even inspired the design of this year’s Christmas stamps. Its composer, Charles Wesley, born 300 years ago this month, is one of the most celebrated hymn writers in the English language, yet he remains in the shadow of his brother, John...

Fulfilling his plan

The Prayer over the Gifts for the third week in Advent recalls God’s gift of himself to us in the Incarnation, as Daniel McCarthy explains. The mystery hidden for generations is at last revealed...

On the threshold

All transitions take time, and Advent is a period of transition par excellence. It is possible to embrace the uncertainties and unresolved issues typical of such times and recognise them in the season’s liturgies ...

Laid down in Bethlehem

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