The image of the Catholic Church as an unchanging monolith seems to be crumbling before our eyes. The conventional wisdom - that it is bad for the laity to see their pastors as fallible human beings disagreeing among themselves - has given way under various pressures, including palpable mistakes made by the Vatican on various issues. This is not a view confined to the Vatican's critics, for Pope Benedict himself has admitted to the mishandling of the lifting of the excommunication of the bishops of the Society of St Pius X. In fact the demand for "unity at all costs" - at least in public - never served the Church well. It was even an element in child-abuse scandals, where the refusal to admit that anything in the Church was less than perfect led to cover-ups and the prolongation of abuse.

No apology can be expected for the Pope's latest controversial utterance, however - his statement at the start of his visit to Africa that the distribution of condoms is not part of the solution to the huge HIV/Aids epidemic which is sweeping the continent, and "only increases the problem". What he was saying has been said before, but his statement was interpreted, possibly wrongly, as closing down the prospect of any shift at all in the Vatican's position on the HIV-condom issue. Indeed, an early sign of the end of the visible consensus among church leaders was the appearance in the public domain of the views of eminent churchmen such as Cardinals Martini and Daneels, in favour of at least some relaxation of the absolute anti-condom line.

They mentioned the hypothetical case of a married couple, one of whom had Aids. Far from serving the transmission of life, sexual intercourse between them could be a death sentence for the uninfected partner. The use of a condom in such instances would be licit as the lesser of two evils. Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor of Westminster has expressed similar sentiments; the late Cardinal Lopez Trujillo, then head of the Pontifical Council for the Family, ...

Sometimes the Catholic Church is admired for its commitment to absolute moral standards; sometimes it is condemned for it. Not much admiration has come the Church's way over a case reported from Brazil. The medical team and the mother of a nine-year-old girl have been excommunicated for their part in an abortion performed on the girl, who became pregnant with twins after being repeatedly raped by her stepfather ...

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) ...

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 ...