How could the need for justice for the still-grieving relatives of the 270 who died in Lockerbie on 21 December 1988 ever be reconciled with the showing of merciful compassion towards a dying man, Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi? He was not the key player in the conspiracy, and largely because so many loose ends were never tied up in the subsequent investigation and trial, doubts have never gone away that there was a miscarriage of justice in his case. In Libya, to which he has returned in something too closely resembling triumph, belief in his innocence is virtually universal. In Scotland, support for his release has been coloured by the feeling that he may well have been innocent. Even so, the dilemma facing those responsible for his fate was as difficult as any such decision could be for the Scottish Justice Secretary, Kenny MacAskill.

Al-Megrahi had been diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer. The release of prisoners serving life when they are about to die is a permitted practice in Scotland and recognised by the Scottish legal system, although the rapturous reception he received on his homecoming was as acute an embarrassment at Holyrood as it was at Westminster. Washington was livid about the whole affair, and its criticisms of the Scottish Executive were forthright. America is often said to be a vengeful society - al-Megrahi would certainly have been executed had he been captured there. Its people bore the brunt of the disaster that overtook Pan Am flight 103 that cold, dark night in Scotland. And there seems to be much less anxiety about his guilt there.

There is a contrasting response to al-Megrahi's release in the Scottish and American Church too. The Bishop of Glasgow, Mario Conti, expresses his admiration for the Scottish Government's decision and says the showing of mercy in this case is a sign of strength rather than weakness. But the Archbishop of New York, Timothy Dolan, professes that mercy here has not been tempered with justice - specifically the justice ...

The August ritual of examination results is usually accompanied by cries of "Things ain't what they used to be!", as if improved grades at A level could only have been achieved by collective cheating. For the young people who have worked hard for their grades, such a response is demoralising and unfair. They have done what was asked of them, and so have their teachers. They do not make the rules, they just make the ...

President Barack Obama’s health-care reforms are in deep trouble. All over the United States rival lobby groups have argued and sometimes clashed as opponents of the reforms sense they may be on the verge of victory. There may be sufficient votes in Congress from an awkward alliance of Republicans and conservative Democrats to ensure that whatever legislation emerges from the hullabaloo is a pale shadow of what ...

One of Pope Benedict XVI’s most controversial initiatives has been his promotion of the Tridentine Rite of Mass as an alternative to the revised rite that reflects the reforms of the Second Vatican Council. Archbishop Vincent Nichols, newly installed at Westminster, has lost little time in defusing some of the reasons for the controversy in a forthright message to priests taking part in a training conference ...

It is a toss-up which issue will prove the tougher for President Barack Obama – United States health-care reform or West Bank settlements. Every United States administration since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war has acknowledged that Israeli settlements dotted over the West Bank landscape are a barrier to any peaceful solution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which has already been responsible for four wars ...

Authorities in Rome have indicated that they want next year’s beatification of John Henry Newman to be conducted in Birmingham, his adopted city. This is a challenge that raises deeper questions – what is the real significance of Newman’s life and work; what is it that should be celebrated? In Britain and elsewhere, Newman’s name is often invoked in support of various causes of the moment ...