| Voices from the lower depths Free Until now, the anarchic and unruly realm of the blogger has been seen as a somewhat surreal world remote from real life. It has at last impinged on mainstream British politics in no uncertain fashion. The malicious blogging ambitions of a couple of ... | New labour, new Catholic |
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Features
 Between a rock and a hard placeTerry PhilpotAs Archbishop Vincent Nichols prepares to succeed to the Archdiocese of Westminster, the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales faces increasing and often conflicting pressures. Here an observer looks at these and how the conference has dealt with them in recent years... |  Agony of L’AquilaDavid WilleyMore than 200 victims of the Abruzzo earthquake were laid to rest in a mass funeral on Good Friday, but for the homeless survivors, the misery may only be beginning, if past experience of rebuilding in corruption-riddled Italy is anything to go by... |
 Resurrection songBenedict XVIIn his homily for the Easter Vigil Mass, reproduced here in full, Pope Benedict asked what Christ’s rising from the dead means for us today, explaining what lies behind the symbolism of light and water, and the deep significance of the alleluia... | A delight in companyDaniel O'LearyFor many parishioners, God remains a punitive figure, chalking up sins to be punished. Here, a parish priest describes how his rediscovery of a simpler theology of nature and grace, with God grounded in the ordinariness of people’s lives, transformed his mission...
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Worship begins at homeRobin GibbsonsSince they have few church buildings, the profile of Eastern Catholics in Britain is low even though their numbers are not. The constraints have had an effect on the way the communities celebrate their liturgies that may have lessons for the Western Church...
| Called to the NHSPhil McCarthyA group representing Catholic doctors has existed for almost 100 years in the UK, but as medical ethical dilemmas increase, that group has now evolved into a new organisation with a broader membership, and its first conference is taking place this weekend...
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Grasping after GodDaniel McCarthyThe means by which the faithful lay hold of the divine mystery – prayer, love of neighbour, the laying on of hands, the Eucharist – are concrete. Expressed in this prayer, writes Daniel McCarthy, is the desire that the outward might transform the inward...
| Smoke machines, amp stacks and graceDeclan McConvilleFor almost three decades the rock band U2 has managed to combine Christian spirituality with an appeal to many who are sceptical about religion. And what the group’s members insist on is an engagement with those who suffer most...
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Columnists
 David Blair‘If Zuma recognises his own limitations his presidency could yet be a success’  Ann Wroe‘Sudden appearings and disappearings mark all the early flowers of spring’
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Books and arts
Philip McCosker Free
God and Mystery: experience through metaphor and drama
David Brown
Where can we experience God? In this stimulating if at times frustrating book, David Brown, Van Mildert Professor of Divinity at Durham University, wants to open our senses to experience ... |
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Is the Church too slow in recognising that academies are the future for Catholic schools?
Christopher Lamb
According to the chairman of governors at the Cardinal Vaughan School, west London, one ... Goodwin the scapegoat
Elena Curti
There was an old Sixties TV series, Branded, about a disgraced soldier that always began ... The pain of being a coeliac Catholic
Sr M, guest contributor
"Whoever comes to me, I shall not turn (him) her away" (John 6:37). Many readers will recognise ...
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