The Beijing Olympic Games symbolise China's arrival in the front rank of the international community. Barring a major mishap, the Games are set to be an impressive organisational triumph as well as a shop window for China's own sporting prowess - it confidently expects to win more medals than any other nation. But amid all the glory there has to be one serious reservation about China's success story. The Chinese people are not yet free, intellectually or spiritually. They do not enjoy freedom of speech, freedom to organise politically or freedom to access information the Government does not want them to have; and their freedom of religious belief and worship is heavily circumscribed by government regulations. Those who cross the limits of what is allowed can expect to be arrested and imprisoned. This partly stems from a culture where social or collective rights traditionally predominate over individual rights, which is where the West places its emphasis. But to a large extent it simply reflects the fact that the Government does not trust its own people.

The Olympics were awarded to China on the basis of the Government's promises that human-rights guarantees would be honoured. But according to Amnesty International, human rights have actually deteriorated in the run-up to the Games, possibly because the authorities do not want anything to detract from China's international image as a nation at peace with itself. Paradoxically, the crackdown has sent the opposite message. Still, there is one easy move the Government could make that would polish its international reputation immediately, a move surely inevitable sooner or later. It should allow the Catholic Church to operate freely within the whole country, as it is already free to do in Hong Kong. The Catholic Church in mainland China is at present split in two: an official part the authorities recognise, which is technically not in communion with Rome, and an unofficial part recognised by Rome but not by the state. ...

Bishops of the Anglican Communion were fortunate in their choice of speaker on Monday, because talking about the big picture is one of the things the Chief Rabbi, Sir Jonathan Sacks, does best. He has an acute understanding of the role of religion in society, and an ability to use an attractive narrative style that those not of his persuasion can easily follow. Religion is important to the health and sustainability ...

In his memoir, A Crown of Thorns, Cardinal John Heenan of Westminster called the crisis that overtook global Catholicism in the summer of 1968 "the greatest shock the Church has suffered since the Reformation". He was referring of course to the publication of the papal encyclical, Humanae Vitae, at the end of July in that tumultuous year, and its painful and divisive aftermath. Forty years on, the most striking ...

Bishops of the Anglican Communion have gathered for the Lambeth Conference, which has begun with a retreat. But the calm atmosphere of prayer and contemplation evoked by the word seems to be in strong contrast with the rancorous character of the preliminaries so far. There does not seem to be much grace about the place, and with grace comes respect. Perhaps the retreat will go some way towards repairing that, although ...

The Church of England is groping towards a harmonious solution of its internal crisis over the ordination of women bishops, but with no guarantee that such a solution exists. The crisis reveals much about the nature of Anglicanism itself. The Anglican claim to be both Catholic and Reformed is a challenging one, for it sets up a tension at the heart of the Church between two tendencies which sometimes point in opposite ...