Bernard Longley’s enthronement as Archbishop of Birmingham in St Chad’s Cathedral in that city on Tuesday, marks the start of a liturgical year that could prove momentous. His appointment, coming so soon after that of Archbishop Vincent Nichols to Westminster, marks the arrival at the top of what might be called the Vatican II generation – men whose formation years were entirely spent after the council. Archbishop Kevin McDonald of Southwark is of that background too, but his ministry was dogged by ill health and sadly he had to announce his resignation last week. So this is a year not only with two new and energetic archbishops at the helm, probably soon to be followed by a third, but of a keenly anticipated papal visit – not least because Benedict XVI has proved a pope full of surprises. And it is the year of Cardinal Newman’s beatification, a ceremony likely – an almost unique honour – to be presided over by the Pope himself.

Newman famously spoke of a “second spring” for Catholic Christianity in Britain, resulting from the re-establishment in 1850 of the Catholic hierarchy for England and Wales. It would be tempting fate to apply the Second Spring description to the opportunities that the Catholic Church faces in the coming year, but there are many portents suggesting it has considerable capacity to raise its game if the spirit is willing. But of course the flesh is weak, as ever, and the history of the Church is littered with missed chances.

To avoid such mistakes will require a clear strategic sense of where the Church stands in relation to the nation. It has emerged from the ghetto, but not enough. It is no longer exclusively preoccupied with protecting Catholic interests, but has yet to see itself as a Church for the whole nation as the Church of England does. When it tries to influence public policy it often succeeds, sometimes to its own surprise, but each example seems to require a special effort ...

The Irish Government’s official report into the handling of child-abuse cases in the Archdiocese of Dublin has shone a shaft of light into some very dark corners. It is to the credit of the current archbishop, Diarmuid Martin, that it was only able to do so because he adopted a policy of total cooperation and transparency, searingly painful though the results have been. It is clear from the report that what motivated ...

The recent ratification of the Lisbon Treaty and first steps towards its implementation were a major step forward in the development of the European Union. And what is good for the EU should be good for Britain. But where were the celebrations, the rousing speeches from politicians, the multi-page supplements in the newspapers, the hour-long documentaries on television? Instead, Britain greeted this landmark event ...

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 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 ...