Stem cells have the remarkable capacity to grow into any part of the body. That is why research using stem cells offers the prospect of treatment for a wide range of serious and painful diseases. But when it involves the use, and then destruction, of fertilised human eggs, the Catholic Church says that this is tampering with human life, and unacceptable. Nor is it alone in saying so. If faith-based objections to this research are to be taken seriously, however, the admirable motive of seeking a cure for suffering must be explicitly recognised.

Such considerations did not deter Cardinal Keith O'Brien from preaching a fierce Easter sermon that described the research as a "monstrous" violation of human rights, particularly the possibility of creating an embryo that had both human and animal DNA. Unfair or not, his dramatic words provoked a media storm, which was followed, a few days later, by the Prime Minister's announcement that Labour MPs who opposed the relevant clauses in the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill before Parliament would now be allowed a free vote. Three Catholic members of his Cabinet were apparently threatening to resign unless this concession was made.

Although the cardinal can claim that he succeeded in his plea for a "conscience" vote on the relevant clauses of the bill, the same adage applies to church spokesmen as to scientists: good ends do not justify bad means. Scottish archbishops are traditionally outspoken while Catholic leaders south of the border usually adopt a more nuanced and tactful tone, as they have on this issue. It is in that spirit that they should respond positively to various suggestions of a dialogue between proponents and opponents of embryo research, such as that put forward in these pages by Professor Colin Blakemore, former head of the Medical Research Council.

But he would be wasting his time if he thought that a better explanation of the likely therapeutic benefits of embryonic stem-cell ...

In his autobiography, Surprised by Joy, C.S. Lewis recalled the steady, unrelenting approach of God. His approach at first was not wanted. Then Lewis began to read the gospels and attend church services. God was after him, he felt, to acknowledge his Son. One day he set out to drive to Whipsnade. On the way there he did not believe that Jesus Christ was the Son of God. But, he recalled, "when we reached the zoo ...

Catholic MPs on the Government side have demanded a free vote - without party whips - so that they can vote against certain clauses of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill now before Parliament. Three Catholic members of the Cabinet have indicated that they may even resign over the issue, and are said to have rejected the offer to be allowed to abstain on what they have said is a matter of conscience ...

There are few areas of public debate so contaminated by prejudice and misrepresentation as the issue of faith schools, essentially church schools, Anglican and Catholic. The week in which anxious parents discovered the allocation of school places was a neuralgic one, therefore, for The Observer to leak some research purporting to show that church schools were creaming off more middle-class pupils than they were entitled ...

Although well aware that Archbishop Robert Zollitsch of Freiburg favoured celibacy being made optional in the Catholic Church, the bishops of Germany recently elected him as their president in succession to Cardinal Karl Lehmann. That is not the only recent straw in this particular wind. The organisation representing priests in Brazil - the country with the greatest shortage of priests - has just launched a petition ...