President Obama has made a serious mistake. He is demanding that Catholic hospitals must make contraceptives available to their staff as part of their health-care packages. The new rules are part of the health-service reforms, which are the greatest achievement of his presidency so far. He appears to have been taken in by the fact that most American Catholics do not have personal moral objections to contraception. He has failed to understand that what they mean by this is that contraception should be a matter for individual consciences. That is not compatible with imposing access to contraception by government regulation. As a result, he has alienated the Catholic Health Association, the body that represents Catholic health-care providers and whose support was crucial as his health-care reforms went through Congress in the teeth of opposition from Catholic bishops. He has placed all that progress at risk. Now he risks alienating millions of Catholic voters, moderate as well as hard-line.

Why do secular politicians so often fail to understand the position taken by individuals or bodies motivated by religious faith? It happened when the Labour Government enforced on British adoption agencies the requirement to treat homosexual couples exactly as they would heterosexual couples. It made the simplistic assumption that opposition must be because of homophobia, and hence could be discounted. The secular agenda seems to have no room for conscience, nor for the right of agencies in civil society to determine their own ethos. The same may be about to happen regarding the English law of marriage, with the easy assumption that those who oppose extending marriage to homosexual couples are unacceptably prejudiced, so their views can be ignored.

The point secular opinion fails to grasp is that there are some things that should – must – be beyond the reach of state power, such as the freedom to make available contraception to employees of Catholic hospitals or not, or ...

Self-determination has become a key principle of international affairs. So when the leader of the Scottish Nationalists insists on having a referendum on the break-up of the union with England established in 1707, it is taken for granted that the result would determine what actually happens. And this would be true even if the English and Welsh were not similarly consulted, though their interests would also be affected. It is this factor that brought Alex Salmond, Scotland’s First Minister, on a charm offensive to London this week to give the Hugo Young Lecture and a series of radio and television interviews. His message was that Scottish independence would be good for England.

The principle of self-determination is an aspect of subsidiarity, which was originally defined by Pope Pius XI in 1931. “It is an injustice and at the same time a grave evil and disturbance of right order”, he said, “to assign to a greater and higher association what lesser and subordinate organisations can do.” The concept of designing political structures so that decisions are made as close as possible to the people affected by them is sound, and has been adopted by the EU. Subsidiarity also implies, however, that there may be some things best done at a higher level.
What can the United Kingdom do for Scotland that Scotland could not do for itself? The traditional answer would be defence, but in the modern world, with no conceivable enemy in sight, Scotland should be safe from attack. More significant nowadays would be the protection of the national economic interest in a turbulent global economy. It is doubtful whether an independent Scotland would have had the financial muscle to bail out the Royal Bank of Scotland when it faced bankruptcy in 2008. In many areas – law, education, the media, religion and social services – Scotland has long had its own institutions. Independence would not change that, though it might diminish their influence. What an independent ...

The eight solicitors who wrote to The Times this week demanding a public inquiry into sexual abuse by members of the clergy may have weakened their case by overstating it. They say they have seen “clear evidence of cover-ups in some of our cases” involving the Catholic Church, which is undoubtedly – and scandalously – true. But they believe these are “the tip of the iceberg”, which ...

Ed Miliband and Mitt Romney could have a mutually sympathetic conversation about the difficulties of political opposition. Labour’s leader is coming under attack from his left – mainly leaders of the large ­public-sector trade union who accuse him of being too New Labour; the Republican front-runner’s main problems come from his right, who find him insufficiently illiberal.

The fact that ...

Britain’s welfare agencies have been both unanimous and vociferous in their opposition to the Government’s Welfare Reform Bill now before Parliament. The Government’s own commissioner for children’s rights, Dr Maggie Atkinson, has listed numerous threats to children’s well-being in the draft legislation, many of which have been echoed by other responsible voices.

Last autumn, ...

A striking contrast exists between the mean-spirited political and media row over immigration which caught fire again this week, and the celebration tomorrow throughout the Catholic Church of the World Day for Migrants and Refugees. The generosity of the latter is summed up by the statement to mark the Day by Bishop Patrick Lynch of Southwark, who leads on immigration issues in the Bishops’ Conference of England ...

Convicting and sentencing two men for the murder of the black teenager Stephen Lawrence in south-east London 18 years ago has stirred conflicting feelings. In part, it is cathartic: at last, some justice has been done. But there is cause for shame at the length of time it took and at the reasons for the delay. Justice still demands that other members of the same gang should also pay the penalty. 

Nevertheless, ...

The news that the Lutheran and Catholic Churches are to embark on a joint review of their shared history sets an example that others could usefully follow. Cardinal Kurt Koch, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, has announced that both Churches have agreed to collaborate in their preparations to mark the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther’s posting of the Ninety-Five Theses in 1517.