25 October 2002
 A test of wisdom for President BushMichael Quinlan ?Starting a war is an immensely grave decision?, writes a former permanent under-secretary at the Ministry of Defence in London. The reasons advanced for doing so against Iraq do not stand up, in his opinion. He looks at the other options. Church in the WorldVatican to revise US bishops? charter on sexual abuse |
AmericasBush?s war plans attacked by his Church | AsiaRebels attack Catholic school in Nepal |
EuropeCzech concordat with Vatican under threat | RomeReport has doubts on women deacons |
Diary of an insider
How did the Second Vatican Council look to the theologians who worked closely with the bishops at that time? The diaries of Yves Congar have just been published, and our Paris correspondent has been reading them. They show how Congar?s doubts and suspicions were overcome as the spirit of the council took over....
Will the IRA disband?
The Good Friday Agreement has transformed the situation in Northern Ireland. But all the time the IRA?s political wing, Sinn Fein, has maintained its links with the armed republican movement. Now there is a showdown, as our Northern Ireland commentator records. Can loyalists and republicans rise to the challenge?...
The paedophile personality
Behind this year?s scandals over the harm caused by a tiny minority of clerical sex abusers is a question few have tried to answer: why might a paedophile find the priesthood attractive? This analysis is by an Oblate priest and registered psychologist working at the Irish national seminary, Maynooth....
Friends for ever
The late Alan Bray stirred up controversy when he wrote in The Tablet last year that the Church once had vows akin to marriage for same-sex friendships. Earlier this month in London, delivering the first Alan Bray Memorial Lecture, Professor Elizabeth Stuart of King Alfred's College, Winchester, took up the theme....
