Provisional figures for those joining the Catholic Church in England and Wales at Easter this year show striking evidence of growth and vitality. Westminster Diocese, being the largest, is in the lead with 850 individuals now finishing the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults including catechumens (those not previously baptised) and candidates (being received into full communion from another denomination). This is an increase of nearly 200 over last year. But the trend is national, with an overall increase likely to be in the region of 20 per cent or more when the final figures are counted. Last year's total was also substantially up. There was a time when converts made a visible contribution to Catholic numbers, and those days may be returning after a lull when even the term "convert" itself became unfashionable, though it accurately describes their common experience. The significance of the energy and commitment that converts bring to the life of the Church cannot be overstated. Nor are they, as popular wisdom has it, necessarily "more Catholic than the Pope".

The principal evangelists for the Catholic faith, it appears, are ordinary Catholic people, who have quietly attracted others to inquire what is "the reason for the faith that is within them", to adapt St Peter. Indeed, the reasonableness of the Catholic faith may be a selling point, when secularists and militant atheists are insistent that religion can only ever be irrational. Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, in a Lenten lecture last week, speculated on what the Catholic Church's current evangelical role might be, now that traditional talk of the "conversion of England" has been overtaken, since Vatican II, by the ecumenical movement. The conversion of England, he said, now means "reaching out to a culture which is deeply secularised and yet longs to hear a voice of meaning and hope". In other words the bishops have no territorial ambitions where the Church of England is concerned, only offers of partnership ...

At precisely the moment on Ash Wednesday when the House of Commons was due to turn into the weekly bear pit of Prime Minister's Questions, proceedings were adjourned for half an hour and the usual raucous exchanges were postponed. It was as if parliamentarians of all persuasions sensed that in the circumstances, the normal traffic of party politics was too frantic and too trivial to contend with. For one of the key ...

Gordon Brown was generous in his praise for Pope Benedict XVI at the Prime Minister's press conference on Wednesday, foreshadowing a successful meeting next day. On international and economic affairs they are like-minded, and Mr Brown clearly sees the Vatican as a valuable ally in furthering not just Britain's interests but those, most especially, of the world's poorer people. He said he greatly admired the Pope's ...

There are apologies, such as "we are sorry for the late running of your train" from railway public-address systems, that are as obviously pre-recorded as they are insincere. There are apologies along the lines of "we are sorry if we have offended you", which are not really apologies at all. And then there are bankers' apologies, of which the Treasury Select Committee heard four on Tuesday, with more to come ...