Recent developments in the Catholic Church have sparked fears of an imminent counter-revolution against the Second Vatican Council. Anxiety is mainly focused on the new translation of the Mass into English but also on a more fundamental call by the papal master of ceremonies, Mgr Guido Marini, for a “renewal of the renewal” which would entail the recasting of the entire Latin liturgy. But is Vatican II itself actually in danger from reactionary forces in the Curia?

The inaugural meeting of a new movement, calling itself Stand Up for Vatican II, took place in London this week. Liturgical issues were high on the agenda and in people’s minds. A petition was launched calling on the bishops of England and Wales to rededicate themselves to Vatican II. Meanwhile their worst fears seemed to be underlined in a lecture by the leading liturgist Fr Anscar Chupungco OSB in Newcastle, New South Wales, in which he asked: “What are the possible implications of a reform of the post-conciliar reform? What agenda does it put forward? The agenda is, to all appearances, an attempt to put the clock back half a century.”

Like many of those at the London meeting, he is of the Vatican II generation. Many priests and lay people who remember those times recall with joy the reforms wrought by the council. They have dreaded ever since the possibility that the far horizons opened up by the Second Vatican Council might shrink again if the Church were to retreat fearfully behind fortress walls. All the post-conciliar popes, with the brief exception of John Paul I, have come under such suspicions. But at least on the evidence of his three encyclicals, it is hard to convict the present Pope of any such intentions. Nor have the English and Welsh bishops shown signs that they need reminding of their commitment to the main conclusions of Vatican II. Except in one small respect – the failure of the substantial majority of them to implement canon 511, which mandates ...

The earthquake that hit Haiti a week ago is a catastrophe of biblical proportions. The people of Haiti were already among the poorest on the planet – apart from the one per cent who owns half the nation’s wealth. The death toll from the magnitude 7.0 earthquake may reach 200,000 or more, and most victims were crushed by falling buildings. This is itself a mark of extreme poverty – it is estimated ...

The polls tell us that immigration continues to head the list of issues of most concern to the British public. What this means is less clear. There is anxiety about community relations and failure to integrate, particularly with reference to Muslims who were, or whose families were, initially from Pakistan. There is the more recent influx from Eastern Europe following the enlargement of the European Union ...

Pope Benedict XVI’s decision to advance Pius XII to the next stage of the canonisation process has brought criticism from within the Jewish community in Britain and elsewhere. Elevation to the status of “venerable” follows recognition of Pius’ “heroic virtues”, an unfortunate expression in the circumstances because the wartime Pope’s heroism – or lack of it – in ...

The crisis surrounding the sexual abuse of children by priests has been used, particularly in the United States, to raise a hue and cry against homosexuality among the clergy. The fault, in other words, was too much tolerance. This illiberal scapegoating has enabled some conservative church leaders to divert attention from deeper structural and cultural problems that led not just to the abuse itself but to the scandal ...