To Essex and beyond

While the BBC’s Sky at Night may still be synonymous with the monocled, rapid-talking, late Sir Patrick Moore, its new generation of presenters has filmed an edition at the Vatican Observatory outside Rome.

Party spirit

The Spirit in the City festival, which takes place next weekend, brings drama, music, faith and Eucharistic adoration to the heart of London’s West End each year.

Written in stone

It is a fitting testimony to the art of printing that a former rector of the journalists’ church – St Bride’s in Fleet Street – should be a champion of top-quality lettering.

New digs 

Newman House, the home of the Catholic chaplaincy to students at London’s universities, marked its fiftieth birthday with a Golden Jubilee Mass for the Ascension, celebrated by Cardinal Vincent Nichols at St James’s church, Spanish Place, last Sunday.

Green prize 

Efforts to save the planet by parishioners at St Henry Morse in Diss, Norfolk, have been rewarded with the 25th parish livesimply award by Cafod. They include installing solar panels, bee-keeping and, for some of the faithful, giving up meat to become vegans.