Christmas' growing commercialisation could be likened to the demolition of Westminster Abbey to be replaced by a car park. No doubt that prime piece of land could make someone a fortune. But no one would seriously suggest that it should be done. The abandonment of the spiritual dimension of Christmas, leaving only pleasure and profit as the point of the midwinter festivities, would leave an even greater hole in the social and moral landscape. It would signify the abandonment of hope. A state of total despair would be hell itself. To escape that fate, there needs to be an ultimate point to life, a transcendent purpose that makes human existence worthwhile. That optimism is at the heart of the meaning of Christmas.

It signifies above all that humanity cannot rely on itself alone. All purely human schemes to build paradise on earth are bound to fail, as the history of the twentieth century painfully demonstrates. The transformation of human history required an act of salvation and it came in the birth of a child who was also the son of God. It was a supreme act of God's mercy, kindling a hope that would be impossible without him. The angelic proclamation of peace and goodwill was a proclamation of hope. And the road to peace, as Pope John XXIII vividly stated, runs through justice, which is goodwill in action. Without hope, indeed, what is the point of justice?

These are the social implications of the Christmas message, and any nation that forgets them is heading for catastrophe. They are not remembered necessarily in the language of Christian doctrine, but in a vague belief in something else, something "more than this". Even for those unaware of the meaning of the Incarnation, the birth of a child provides a clue. It is an occasion for giving gifts as a mark of celebration and congratulation. Working back from the traditional exchange of gifts at Christmas - the very factor that drives its commercialisation - clearly there must be a birth being celebrated ...

The Government Chief Whip, Geoff Hoon, has been asked by Catholic Labour MPs to extend the categories under which they are allowed a "conscience" vote to include various issues raised in the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill. They will automatically be excused the duty to obey a whip - a government instruction to vote a certain way - when the House of Commons debates amendments to the bill relating ...

Pope Benedict XVI's lucid and profound encyclical Spe Salvi - "Saving Hope" - failed to gain much notice in the secular media but deserves serious attention in the Church, both for what it says and for what it signals. Of the three theological virtues, so called because they are impossible without divine grace, hope is the least understood and therefore the most neglected. Under the papal microscope, ...

The stakes could hardly be higher, but so are the odds. The international peace conference convened by President George Bush in Annapolis in the United States has brought together more than 40 states and international agencies in the search for the most elusive peace deal of all, one between the state of Israel and its hostile neighbours. The burden of the search for peace lies mainly on the shoulders of the Palestinian ...

From time to time an idea comes along that captures the mood of the moment. Eight years ago a new organisation, Fathers Direct, did just that. Its main aim was to provide information on fatherhood through training and advice, but its very existence reflected the growing belief that fathers should play as vital a role in the raising of children as mothers do. Indeed, much of Fathers Direct's focus has been on helping ...