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Robert MickensFollowing the Haiti earthquake, the pontifical council Cor Unum named Catholic Relief Services of the US as the main aid coordinator. But whether or not it had the authority to do this is a question that goes to the heart of the Church’s work in international aid and development Free
From the editor’s desk
Features
A roof, a bed, a mealIsabel de BertodanoA record 4.5 million people are on waiting lists for affordable housing, but those in greatest need are the homeless. At the start of Poverty and Homelessness Action Week, our reporter talked to the people affected and discovered ecumenical projects that are making a real difference...
| Anonymous conciliaristsAlana HarrisThis week the new organisation Stand Up for Vatican II had its inaugural meeting, inspired by the fears of the Sixties generation that the council’s reforms are being sidelined. But, says a young historian, it is as much a part of young people’s Catholicism as that of their parents ...
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Can Léonard bridge the divide?Jan de VolderPope Benedict has chosen the most conservative member of the Belgian bishops’ conference to be the next Archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels. Although many consider Bishop André-Mutien Léonard a divisive figure, he is as progressive on social matters as he is conservative on moral ones ...
| Someone is knockingDominic McKennaHelping the homeless can be fraught with all kinds of difficulties. On the eve of Poverty and Homelessness Action Week, we look at one parish where, once formidable obstacles had been overcome, a church-run shelter became an integral part of parishioners’ Christian witness...
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 Holyrood’s unholy billKathleen NuttIt banned smoking in public places long before Westminster, and made personal and nursing care free for the elderly. Now, as ‘mercy killing’ once again hits the news headlines, Scotland’s may be the first parliament to legalise assisted suicide... | Out of mortality, a remedyDaniel McCarthyThree prayers are assigned to this Sunday, but the Preface is selected from among
several options. The range of religious sentiments and images of God at one liturgy, writes Daniel McCarthy, recognises how our image of God matures over a lifetime...
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Tears and silenceEdward KesslerEach year on Holocaust Memorial Day, Christians and Jews come together to reflect on the horror of the Nazi extermination camps. A visit to Auschwitz prompted one Jewish academic to reflect on its profound impact on the two faiths...
| ‘I don’t think that what she did could be considered sinful’Sue GaisfordSue Gaisford on the dilemma facing her neighbour Kay Gilderdale, acquitted this week after helping her daughter to die...
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Columnists
 David Blair‘Two weeks on, a few corpses are still visible amid the rubble of the city’s cathedral’ Robert MickensLetter from Rome
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Books and arts
Mr and mrs Pinter, at Home Free
Must You Go? My life with Harold Pinter
Antonia Fraser
Let me admit it: I cried at Antonia Fraser’s description of her husband, Harold Pinter’s, death from cancer. “Must you go?” she writes. “Yes, it was ... |
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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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