A gathering of a family around the supper table is a moment when the bonds that are shared are reinforced, the love its members have for one another is enhanced and the very experience of coming together can strengthen them as they go out into the world. But it is also a place where old jealousies can resurface, where squabbling can break out and enmities occur. That, sadly, is also true of those called to the Lord's table. The divisions in the Church between traditionalists and progressives seem nowhere so marked as they are over the form of the Mass. No wonder  Cardinal Darío Castrillón Hoyos felt the need during his recent visit to London to warn both liberal and conservative Catholics against making the Eucharist a cause of confrontation.

While confrontation should certainly be avoided, there is a growing danger that Catholics will be confused as to the intentions of the Vatican regarding the new rite, introduced after the Second Vatican Council. Last year, Pope Benedict issued his motu proprio enabling Catholics to attend a Mass in the Tridentine Rite should a stable group request it from a parish priest. The Tridentine Rite, he said, was the extraordinary form, while the new rite was the ordinary form. Now Cardinal Castrillón, president of the Pontifical Commission, Ecclesia Dei, has gone further, suggesting that the old rite should be celebrated in every parish in England and Wales. Some see this as a sign that the old rite is being restored step by step. Others go further, warning that if both rites become widely available the Mass could become a sign of division rather than a place of communion.

Those made anxious can take comfort from Cardinal Castrillón's exhortation to fraternal dialogue. But while dialogue is vital, and there is a need to understand the way in which Catholics of good will who loved the old rite have felt estranged from the Church for so many years, there is nevertheless a need to recognise and uphold ...

The papal nuncio to Great Britain has let it be known he has begun consultations to find a successor to Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor as Archbishop of Westminster. In that spirit The Tablet has been publishing a range of opinions from Catholics, lay and clerical, and today we complete the exercise with a list of the names, which - as far as it is possible to tell - the nuncio might be considering. It is necessarily ...

The most interesting American presidential primary contest in living memory has drawn to a close, with an outcome that 12 months ago would have seemed truly extraordinary. The young Illinois Senator Barack Obama, whose father was Kenyan and mother American, has pipped Hillary Clinton, former First Lady and clear favourite last year, to the finishing post, represented by winning a total of 2,118 or more committed delegates ...

Relations between Christians and Muslims have never been more sensitive nor crucial to the peace and prosperity of the planet. Both have their fundamentalists, to whom outright conversion of the other is the only acceptable goal. The mainstream in each case, meanwhile, finds dealing with its own fundamentalists almost as tricky as dealing with the other faith. The Church of England is to debate a motion at its summer ...

Three major events in the past week have offered insights into the family of today and the family of the future. First, there was the wedding of the Queen's grandson, Peter Phillips, and Autumn Kelly, attended by the divorced and remarried parents of both bride and groom, together with their new spouses. It was a complicated situation familiar to many Catholics who suffer as much from marital breakdown as the rest ...