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Isabel de Bertodano and Christopher LambPOPE BENEDICT XVI is coming to Britain next year, in what will be the first papal state visit to this country. Free
From the editor’s desk
| A welcome for the Pope Free News emerged as The Tablet went to press this week that the Pope is to visit Britain next year – the first papal visit since that of John Paul II in 1982. On that occasion the visit was a pastoral one, as it co-incided with the Falklands War, ... | Brave on cuts, timid on tax |
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Features
 Tiger balmDavid QuinnFrom bishops to businessmen, politicians to farmers, united in their concern or their broken economy, a broad coalition is massing for a “yes” vote in next month’s second Irish referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. Meanwhile those in the “no” vote lobby make for strange bedfellows... |  A woman’s place?Phyllis ZaganoAs teachers and nurses they were once the mainstay of the US Church. Today those left are more likely to be theologians, pastoral workers and spiritual directors. And they are prepared to say what they think. Now the Vatican is investigating America’s active women Religious... |
 ‘It’s as if they need Thérèse’Isabel de Bertodano and Christopher LambEngland today is usually thought of as an overwhelmingly secular society, but for the thousands turning out to queue up and venerate the relics of St Thérèse of Lisieux, currently on a month-long, 28-stop tour of the country, nothing could be further from the truth
... | Put away childish thingsJoseph O'HanlonThe Sacrament of Reconciliation – confession – is observed by far fewer Catholics, and much less frequently, than once was the case. The Church has debated the reasons for this, and the prevailing secularist culture is often blamed. But something else altogether might be at work...
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 Reasons of the heartJohn CottinghamThe Greek ideal of the good life, according to Aristotle, could be achieved through leading harmonious lives of virtue. But the Judaeo-Christian tradition suggests that moral development requires something much more dramatic and emotional... |  Less sinned against than sinningEdward KesslerOur public figures have had a lot to apologise for recently, and we have grown used to their expressions of remorse. But, a Jewish theologian argues ahead of Yom Kippur, that there is more to repentance than simply saying sorry... |
 Back to basics in BohemiaRobert MickensTwo decades after Prague’s Velvet Revolution brought about the bloodless overthrow of Czechoslovakia’s Communist regime, the Pope is visiting the Czech Republic. But there will be more than a happy anniversary on his mind... | On the origins of the spiritualDavid HaySome called him with pride God’s biologist; others regarded his faith with suspicion. But now, 40 years on, many acknowledge the work of Sir Alister Hardy as crucial in changing the troubled relationship between religion and science...
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From suffering to gloryDaniel McCarthyIn proclaiming the death of Christ, we also share in a particular way in his suffering, writes Daniel McCarthy. This sharing allows us to be renewed in mind and body, and to help consecrate the world to God...
|  Promise cut shortDominic PrincePotential champions – both human and equine – emerge so rarely on the racetrack, writes Dominic Prince, that it is particularly poignant when tragedy strikes... |
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Columnists
 Catherine Pepinster‘Forecasting death is an inexact science, and withholding food can mask signs of recovery’  Margaret Hebblethwaite‘Abundance is the rule in the campo – nature gives in basketfuls and cartloads’
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Books and arts
In the shadow of Franco Free
Papa Spy: love, faith and betrayal in wartime Spain
Jimmy Burns
No one who picks up anything written by Jimmy Burns will be bored. There are those who feel that at times he has devoted his talents too wholeheartedly to the study of football in ... |
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Can the Church support abuse victims on its own terms?
Elena Curti
The clear message that emerged from the symposium on child sexual abuse held in Rome from ... 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 ...
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