In 1984 the then-Lutheran (later Catholic) American polemicist Richard Neuhaus published his book The Naked Public Square, a counter-attack on those who were trying to use the American First Amendment about the separation of Church and State to make religion disappear from public visibility. The Naked Public Square quickly became something of a cult in America. But from a British perspective at the time it seemed far-fetched. The aggressive secularism it was denouncing has now raised its head in Britain, however, and has turned its focus recently on one symbolic issue, the daily broadcasting by BBC Radio of the slot “Thought for the Day”.

The slot is described by the BBC as a “reflection from a religious perspective” on topical issues. It usually runs to less than 500 words, and is given by a range of contributors selected from each of the major faith communities in Britain. The editor of The Tablet, Catherine Pepinster, and its editorial consultant, Clifford Longley, are among them. The secularist lobby’s latest campaign against “Thought for the Day” has just been rebuffed in a long and measured judgment by the BBC Trust, the corporation’s supervising body. The trust found that none of the BBC’s requirements for impartiality and fairness under its Public Service Remit had been breached by the existence of this programme in its present form. The terms of reference of “Thought for the Day” implicitly exclude participation by atheists, humanists and secularists, and it is this policy that the campaign specifically sought to reverse. But it is clear, both from the nature of the complaints to the trust and from the surrounding publicity campaign, that what was really being objected to was the valuable exposure religion receives from this programme, particularly as it is broadcast at a prime time of the morning in the middle of the BBC’s flagship current-affairs magazine, Today. Secularist commentators wanted ...

The apostolic constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus has now been published by the Holy See, and no one will read it more avidly than members of the Anglo-Catholic wing of the Church of England and Anglicans of similar mind abroad. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome has devised it, with Pope Benedict XVI’s blessing, to meet the needs of Anglicans who wish to preserve some of their traditions and ...

What is a crucifix? It is not a symbol of the almighty power of the Catholic Church, but a representation of one innocent man’s agonising death at the hands of the state, after torture and a sham trial – in other words, a gross human-rights violation. Catholics believe that that innocent man is also the Son of God, but the depiction is realistic, not metaphysical. The decision of the European Court of Human ...

This edition’s Letters pages include an account by Fr Dermot Power of an event that took place in London as part of the Intelligence Squared series of debates. MP Ann Widdecombe and Nigerian Archbishop John Onaiyekan were thrown to the secular lions, Christopher Hitchens and Stephen Fry, as they tried to defend the Catholic Church to an unsympathetic audience. Fr Power, who teaches at the Allen Hall seminary, ...

Little more than a week ago the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, and the Archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Nichols, knelt together in prayer at the tomb of St Edward the Confessor in Westminster Abbey in a poignant demonstration of ecumenism and friendship between Catholics and Anglicans. The moment was perceived by many as a further sign of the growing reconciliation between the two Churches ...