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, and so it was deemed politic not to favour England and Wales with an official visit at a time when the United Kingdom was in conflict with Catholic Argentina. But this time, the Pope will come to Britain on a state visit, with all the pomp that that implies, and all the historical resonance of an official papal visit almost 500 years after the break with Rome of the Reformation.

Invitations for visits arrive thick and fast at the Vatican, and it is clearly impossible for any head of state, let alone one aged 82, to accept them all. That the Pope has accepted an invitation to visit Britain is not only an honour but reflects a growing warmth between Britain and the Holy See. Rome has noticed that there have been five visits in the last six years by serving British prime ministers. The spouses of both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown have made separate visits; the Prince of Wales also called on the Pope earlier this year. The admiration for Cardinal Newman, soon to be beatified, and the high personal regard the Vatican has for the Archbishop of Canterbury, have all played their part. Then there are the constant diplomatic relations between Westminster and the Holy See. While tensions sometimes simmer between the Government and the Church in England and Wales over moral matters such as abortion, same-sex relationships and assisted suicide, there is plenty of accord over issues such as climate change and reducing poverty, which the Government will want to build on.

For the Church in Britain, the visit will be a once-in-a-generation opportunity not only to welcome the Holy Father, and for its members to experience prayerful encounters with him, but also to open its doors to others who are interested in seeking answers to the most ...

The summer’s parliamentary expenses scandal, coupled with the country’s overwhelming lack of confidence in the Labour Government under Gordon Brown, has now been joined by a third factor turning people away from politics and politicians – the inability to be honest about public spending. Major issues of social policy affecting the whole country are being swept under the carpet, while the leaders of ...

The conviction of three British Muslim men of a plot to blow up airliners over the Atlantic, and of a fourth for a related conspiracy, has told the world how close it came to reliving the horrific trauma of 9/11 when four American airliners were used as flying bombs. It is not clear how many aircraft the British conspirators hoped to bring down, but the death toll could have exceeded the 2,993 (including 19 terrorists) ...

Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver, Colorado, has castigated The Tablet for urging the Catholic hierarchy in America to put its weight behind President Barack Obama’s health-care reforms, accusing a Tablet editorial on 15 August of cynicism or ignorance. He says it overlooked two points. The first is the danger that government funds might be used to pay for abortion; the second is distrust of government attitudes ...

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 ...