The question takes on a particular flavour when asked in the historic city of Sarajevo, where the evidence of social and political meltdown, catastrophic violence and human trauma is everywhere. Some 500 Catholic theologians from around the world gathered in the Bosnian capital last week for the third international conference of Catholic Theological Ethics in the World Church. It is the brainchild of James Keenan SJ of Boston College, whose vision is to create a global community of theological ethicists that supports young and emerging scholars.

One evening I found myself sitting alongside the passionately eloquent Spanish Benedictine sister, theologian and medical doctor Teresa Forcades