He will be remembered as one of the great communicators of Christian faith Just three days before he was admitted to hospital for bronchitis in February, Pope Francis delivered a strongly worded message to the US about Donald Trump’s attitude to migrants In a letter sent to the country’s Roman Catholic bishops he made clear that he completely disagreed with Trump’s mass deportation plans for illegal migrants and not on the truth about the equal dignity of every human being The sentiment was not only reserved for Trump. Throughout his 12 years as pope, Francis, who died this morning at the age of 88 especially those viewed by others as outsiders – whether migrants “Who am I to judge?” he famously said when asked about his attitude towards gay men and women a remark that contrasted starkly with his predecessor who once described homosexuality as a tendency “ordered towards an intrinsic moral evil” This focus on outsiders stemmed in part from Francis’s own experience. He grew up in Argentina, about 7,000 miles from the Vatican whose family arrived in Buenos Aires in 1929 seeking a new start after scraping a living in rural Italy It was this that caused him to joke to the crowds in Rome’s St Peter’s Square on the night of his election in March 2013 that the cardinals had gone to the peripheries to find a new pope While these experiences shaped Francis’s thinking He became one of the great communicators of Christian faith chattily expounding like a parish priest to pilgrims attending his general audiences in St Peter’s Square He would finish reciting the Angelus prayer there on Sundays with a “buon pranzo” – have a good lunch – and rarely wore traditional red shoes or white trousers complaining they made him look like an ice-cream seller He abandoned the apostolic palace for a simple room in the Casa Santa Marta a residence used by bishops and cardinals visiting Rome This style forms a major part of his legacy Francis was a pope who wanted none of the pomp of a papacy His concern for those most affected by economic hardship and the tide of refugees sweeping through Europe and America was matched by his empathy for those uprooted by the climate crisis His concern for the planet – what he called “our common home” – was rooted in a reverence for God’s creation putting forward scientific and theological reasons for protecting the planet from climate breakdown He would often give his visitors a copy – including Trump A newly elected Pope Francis during Sunday Angelus prayer at the Vatican Photograph: Tony Gentile/ReutersDespite his focus on justice there were dissatisfied rumblings about his papacy inside the church When the cardinals gathered in Rome to vote for the successor to Benedict XVI after his sudden resignation in February 2013 they wanted a reformer who could shake up the management of the church’s finances Francis swept away the old guard of cardinal overseers and set up his own team of clerics and lay experts after revelations of mismanagement of the Vatican’s own finances emerged He also attempted to change the way the church dealt with priests involved in child sexual abuse but floundered as details emerged of clerics to whom Francis himself seemed to have been too lenient Some of those who supported the Argentinian felt frustrated that the church moved too slowly Conservatives in the church were most outraged by Francis’s approach to morality particularly his decision to urge parish priests to decide on individual cases as to whether divorced Catholics who remarried should receive communion his fiercest opponents published an unprecedented document – a dubia They showed similar disdain for his more recent proposal that outlined the possibility of blessings for same-sex couples particularly by his refusal to countenance women becoming priests to key Vatican positions that were previously always occupied by men which gave lay participants at the synod gatherings – the representatives of ordinary Catholics in the pews – equal discussion and voting rights with bishops and cardinals as the door to the pope’s room is ritually sealed and his personal papal ring he has worn for the past 12 years is snapped in two there will be speculation as to who will follow him Francis will have played his part in shaping the church in his image Of the 138 cardinals eligible to vote in the next conclave to elect a new pope Whoever is elected next, and whatever version of Catholicism they preach the church needs someone who understands how to use the contemporary media to reach out to the world or through a letter critiquing the US president then he can be not only shepherd of the world’s Catholics but someone who speaks to people of all faiths and none There were times when Francis did appear to have that talent given the divisions that constantly threaten to overwhelm it living up to the old papal title of pontifex – bridge – is an almost impossible task Catherine Pepinster is a former editor of The Tablet Yesterday was one of the great days in the European calendar – May Day once associated with folk traditions marking the start of summer now a bank holiday in the European Union celebrating workers’ rights Once it was always linked to the Virgin Mary but 70 years ago the Catholic Church announced May 1 as the feast of St Joseph the Worker You might say that in creating this new feast it recognised the signs of the time: the then Pope did so in the aftermath of the Second World War knowing that the world had changed and the Church must change with it He wanted to make it clear that the Church stood alongside ordinary people and that it recognised the worth and dignity of work than to make May 1 the feast day of St Joseph the Worker foster father of Jesus and a carpenter who toiled at his workbench all day before cardinals begin on Wednesday the secret voting in the conclave to elect the next pope they will hold many talks together – and their focus will be reading the signs of the times They will discuss the age in which we live discern how the Church should respond and therefore who should lead it For some the signs of the times may reveal that the most important issue is speaking up for those enduring poverty and injustice Others will argue that people across the globe feel that it is so troubled that they are looking for reassurance and stability But a key question facing the cardinals will be one which has perhaps always beset the Church – but certainly did in the 12 years of the pontificate of Pope Francis Should the Church change to walk alongside people where they are now or should its focus be standing for truth For some this tension can be resolved by your approach One cardinal participating in the conclave is Cardinal Mario Grech who has said priests used to tell people to put their lives in order before thinking about Christ there was a Gospel reading where Jesus told his apostle Peter The cardinals will be looking for the one they think can shepherd the flock The destination may stay the same – getting closer to God – but how do you get there – the cardinals may well ask that of the new shepherd Caldey Abbey Catherine Pepinster CATHOLIC NEWS child sex abuse clerical sex abuse Abuse cases have tainted Caldey’s reputation ‘I do not have a memory of Caldey that does not include abuse,’ one of the victims told a review released this week that has exposed a familiar story of cruelty Register for free to read this article in full Get the latest news and special offers delivered to your inbox Subscribe Advertise Jobs About us Permissions Help Contact us The archbishop’s resignation for failing to respond to abuse complaints speaks of deeper issues in the Church of England But Welby and his fellow Church of England prelates take as their guiding light the teachings of that rabbi this passage from the gospel of Matthew: “If anyone causes one of these little ones – those who believe in me – to stumble it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.” Read moreMakin was very clear about Welby’s own culpability soon after his appointment as archbishop of Canterbury he was informed of the Smyth case and told that complaints had been reported to the police But no formal referral had actually been made Welby and other senior church figures showed “a distinct lack of curiosity” and “a tendency towards minimisation of the matter” he was new to the role of archbishop of Canterbury Perhaps with a desk piled high with papers Welby was predicted to be a super-efficient archbishop given he joined the church after years in important roles in oil businesses People believed he would act decisively and run the church more effectively you sensed he was a CEO who had mentally allocated you five minutes before passing on to the next matter to be dealt with You can’t run a church with a handbook full of business buzzwords like “low-hanging fruit” or “good to go” let’s take a few more phrases that Welby might have learned from the business world there has been a very steep one in the past few days His first response to the report was to apologise and say he wasn’t going to resign He quickly learned that nowadays it is survivors of abuse who have moral authority rather than archbishops and when they demanded that he go – as well as the thousands who signed a petition urging him to quit – he had to do so His resignation statement spoke of him taking “personal and institutional responsibility” Makin showed that others – including at least four serving bishops – failed children Then there is the future. Professor Alexis Jay, who was commissioned by the C of E to look at its safeguarding recommended it move to an independent system but says it is now dragging its feet Stephen Cottrell – now the most senior Anglican cleric – spoke on Radio 4’s Today programme he indicated that delays were in part due to the church’s structure requiring its synod to be involved in reforms That suggests – using another of those business phrases – it really needs to go back to the drawing board Think about streamlining what it does when it comes to safeguarding Listen more to survivors and preach a little less The Church of England is unlikely to cast aside hundreds of years in an instant for dramatic reforms – although the voluntary resignation of an archbishop of Canterbury was unprecedented But it would do well to focus harder on that wandering rabbi who spoke so powerfully of those who harmed children Otherwise not only will more be damaged but all that it stands for – the food banks the places we can go when we need to be still and silent – will be irreparably harmed too Catherine Pepinster is a writer on religion and a former editor of the Tablet Francis’s refusal to allow the ordination of married men has highlighted divisions in the church When the cardinals of the Roman Catholic church gathered for their conclave in the Sistine Chapel in 2013 and elected the Argentinian Jorge Bergoglio as the next pope he joked that they had gone to the ends of the Earth to find him It turned out that this was more than a joke: it was a warning of what was to come for the saint of Assisi who dedicated himself to the poor has ever since been trying to shape the whole of the Catholic church to be more like the one found in Latin America Traditionalists fumed; progressive Catholics loved it this is the pope who will rid the church of the insistence on celibacy for the priesthood and allow married priests Those bishops had also called for the church to let women serve within the clergy This was not the first time there has been controversy over Francis’s stance on the Amazon When he called bishops and other representatives to Rome last year for a synod on the region people brought little statues of the Pachamama which were at the centre of some worship during the gathering Read moreFrancis’s document this week did still offer some encouragement to progressives It attacked big business for destroying the Amazon and expressed concern for the indigenous Amazon peoples this way of treating the Amazon territory spells the end for so much life Querida Amazonia is typical of Francis’s making the environment and poverty great themes of his pontificate – just what liberal Catholics love But on the matter of ordaining married priests That comment refers to the clericalism in the Catholic church – a cult of officialdom that makes clerics particularly important. It was supposed to have been addressed through reforms brought in by the Second Vatican Council of the 1960s But change has been disappointingly slow – at least in Europe Read moreThe difficulty with this is that however much the pope advocates not ordaining women to avoid this problem of clericalism, and calls for making the church more akin to what he calls a “field hospital” – caring for people and dressing their wounds – that doesn’t solve all the challenges it faces believes the church must get its hands dirty and live alongside the people But the heart of the Catholic church is still the communal experience of the mass – and for that you need a priest If women are excluded from that crucial role then they are not engaged in what is at the centre of Catholic faith Francis has now put himself in a position where he has infuriated his traditionalist critics and alienated his previous supporters – without really solving the shortage of priests in the Amazon The man from the ends of the Earth has proved to be a disruptive figure in ways that no one expected Catherine Pepinster is a former editor of the Tablet and author of The Keys and The Kingdom:The British and the Papacy from John Paul II to Francis Biden and Trump are chasing the Catholic vote Will the pope’s warning against populism and nationalism hold any sway They make up one of the most important constituencies of American voters, so it’s no wonder that Catholics have been specifically courted by both Joe Biden and Donald Trump during the US presidential campaign. Four years ago, according to the Pew Research Center, 52% of them voted for Trump you might expect substantial numbers of the tens of millions of American Catholics who possess a vote to consider switching sides to one of their own and the need for greater fraternity and solidarity Its message means the pope has waded right into some of the key issues dominating the US presidential election Like British monarchs, popes are supposed to be above party political matters, and Pope Francis has certainly not done anything as crass as name names in his encyclical, although he’s not above overt criticism. Ahead of the 2016 election, he described Trump’s plan to thwart migrants by building a wall between the US and Mexico as “not Christian” In this weekend’s document he makes it clear that populism and nationalism – of the kind Trump typifies – are damaging warning that “a concept of popular and national unity influenced by various ideologies is creating new forms of selfishness and a loss of the social sense under the guise of defending national interests” With Catholics making up such a large proportion of voters both Democratic and Republican campaigners are keen to appeal to them Trump’s camp stresses abortion and matters of religious liberty while Biden has often spoken of the way in which his own Catholic faith has helped him in dark times and he’s not averse to making the personal political “The next Republican that tells me I’m not religious I’m going to shove my rosary beads down their throat,” the Cincinnati Enquirer once reported him as saying His team stresses Catholic teaching that focuses on the poor and the vulnerable but a necessity if the world is to become a better place But while his idealism sets Trump followers’ teeth on edge he can also make Democrats on the left uncomfortable There is no advocacy here of big government and welfare state narratives either And at the heart of his teaching in this document and all his papal pronouncements over the past seven years has been a strong stance on the right to life that takes him all the way from completely rejecting capital punishment to vetoing abortion Fratelli Tutti will make for awkward reading for Trump, and his gun-toting, pro-electric chair supporters, including prominent Catholic attorney general William Barr who reintroduced federal executions for the first time since 2003 Yet it will also be tricky for Biden and the large constituency of Catholic Democrats who have compromised on abortion In that sense Fratelli Tutti cannot be classed as giving a wholesale papal imprimatur to Biden But for those Catholics still thinking of casting their ballot for Trump it should inspire them to question what Pope Francis would surely say is the most precious thing they possess: their conscience This clarion call from across the Atlantic could well be an election clincher Catherine Pepinster is a former editor of the Catholic weekly Who’ll win the race for the White House? Join Guardian journalists Jonathan Freedland, Daniel Strauss, Lauren Gambino and Richard Wolffe for an online Guardian Live event, on Tuesday 20 October, 7pm BST (2pm EST). Book tickets here the nuns would sometimes organise retreat days for us to spend some time in prayer and also think about life’s big issues there would be folksy metaphorical tales such as one about an Englishman driving in the middle of the night in Ireland who stops at a red traffic light rigidly obeying the red light and only drives off when it turns green an Irish woman arrives at the lights but as the road is deserted and no one else is about The point they wanted to impart was that rules are not there to be blindly obeyed but are there as guidance and a mature person interprets them Many non-believers will probably be surprised by my nuns’ flexible approach Aren’t Christians supposed to follow a moral code seen as timeless and ever constant The timelessness and constancy of Judaeo-Christian thought is the foundation of our legal system with its prohibitions against killing and thieving But our changing mores are evident when we think about John Stuart Mill’s argument that the most important issue about wielding power over individuals evident in the legalisation of homosexuality in 1967 and the abhorrence of slavery since it was outlawed in the early 19th century It isn’t just the law that has changed; Christian beliefs have too, or at least the beliefs of some believers. Last week, the Church of England’s General Synod voted to allow a trial of special services for blessing same-sex couples put it with a certain understatement: “The Church of England is not of one mind on questions of sexuality and marriage.” On one side are traditionalists who insist that the Bible’s edicts stand the test of time including the Old Testament’s denunciation of homosexuality as wrong On the other are those who argue that Jesus rewrote the script Some of the comments made during the debate from people directly affected by the antipathy towards gay people from others in the church were heart-rending talked about “the shame I’d absorbed about me but Jesus showed me how to be ourselves… God has made us a vibrantly diverse people and our faith should be strong enough to cope with some shaking.” Christianity is at its best when its followers shape God not in their own likeness but in someone else’sWhen the Wolfenden report was published in 1957 which led to the eventual legalisation of homosexuality 10 years later spoke in the House of Lords in support of the report’s recommendations he said that “there is a sacred realm of privacy… into which the law must not intrude” when it comes to public recognition of relationships it matters that they receive both the endorsement of their church and God’s blessing on their relationship The need for both was clear when gay people spoke in the Synod debate last week gay issues have been painful for a very long time There have been harsh utterances from the Vatican in the past so harsh that the late cardinal Basil Hume wrote his own guidance 25 years ago for English Catholics “and always respecting the appropriate manner of its expression whether of the same sex or a different sex Last month, Pope Francis picked up where Hume left off while marriage could only be between a man and a woman effectively endorsing it as essentially being about procreation requests for same-sex blessings were a means of people reaching out to God and that the church “cannot be judges who only deny who runs the New Ways Ministry to reach out to LGBTQ+ Catholics said the church was recognising that “the love of these couples mirrors the love of God” And that is the whole point. Christians believe humanity has been made in the image of God. But all too often, individuals seem to want to make him in their own image. Yet Christianity is at its best when its followers shape God not in their own likeness but in someone else’s It’s easier to cling on to certain theological interpretations and insist they must never change It’s much harder to take them as signposts but respond in our own contemporary context But a religion that has lasted more than 2,000 years can surely cope with a little more compassion Catherine Pepinster is a former editor of the Tablet Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 250 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at observer.letters@observer.co.uk This is the archive of The Observer up until 21/04/2025 The Observer is now owned and operated by Tortoise Media with some ringing the changes to suggest she had lost her fight Thankfully, the Guardian reported simply that she had died after transforming the conversation around the illness But if anything still needs changing it’s the notion that having cancer is a battle while people such as me – still thankfully alive a few years after treatment – are triumphant It suggests that people such as Rachael were somehow not up to the task of dealing with her illness – a defeated soldier if you like unlike those of us still trudging across the cancer war zone scarred physically by surgery and the taking of powerful drugs and scarred emotionally by the fact we’ve had an illness that could yet come back and kill us Any obituary of Rachael Bland makes it abundantly clear that this was hardly a woman who was a loser. From the moment she was first diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer, in 2016, she set about using her journalistic skills to first write a blog and later produce a highly popular podcast, You, Me and the Big C even when you know you have little time left and your death will leave your three-year-old child motherless Rachael Bland mustered courage and energy to try to make the lives of other cancer sufferers easier by making the illness more talked about Many of them will present a stoical front to the world but they are also vulnerable and to friends and to relatives who support patients but from time to time one does see tears shed as people contemplate that their future can no longer be taken for granted Or they just feel ghastly because of their treatment The lazy metaphors don’t help. Yesterday, on the day Rachael died, the story of two other women with cancer was reported have been friends for many years and were both diagnosed with breast cancer when in their 30s; and after treatment But now they both have incurable secondary cancer Watts is being treated and kept stable with innovative drugs while an NHS policy quirk means Myatt is not able to undergo the same treatment The devastation experienced because the cancer came back and the frustration about one of them not getting effective treatment as Watts said: “The way people describe cancer as a battle makes you feel like a loser when it comes back when in reality your treatment either works or it doesn’t Metaphors are often used to cover up other words considered too harsh or too blunt That’s apparent with the euphemisms used for death: passed on The charity Independent Age has launched a campaign to encourage people to speak frankly about dying and avoid the cliches not because she fought a battle nor lost it Catherine Pepinster is an author and journalist (It should be noted that the C9 members involved dispute the claims.) In recent days the Catholic church has also been rocked by accusations against one of the most respected cardinals of recent times, the retired archbishop of Washington DC, Theodore McCarrick The Vatican has ordered him to cease public ministry there has been cultural resistance within the church over abuseThe scandals now lead to routine expressions of sorrow from the Vatican and other Catholic outposts and indeed innocent clerics viewed as possible miscreants by a cynical public need action to be taken to at last root out the abusers This is not, of course, a contemporary problem of Francis’s own making. The vast majority of the cases coming to the fore are historical. The pope has inherited not only a backlog but a church which for decades was reluctant to act – and all too often run by a hierarchy keen to hide scandals, as the movie Spotlight about the Boston paedophile priest scandal The election of Francis in 2013 prompted hopes of a much-needed change in culture. He soon created an advisory commission on the protection of minors, appointing lay people such as British psychiatrist Lady Sheila Hollins and also victims. But the commission has foundered and the victims have quit, frustrated at lack of progress. Many critics also claim that celibacy is the cause of abuse in the Catholic church. But other institutions from the Church of England to the BBC and the Football Association have reeled from abuse scandals and have no such requirement. What the scandal does definitively show is that many who have advocated chasteness have shown contempt for it themselves. If Francis is to get to grips with this scandal then he must act fast. A tribunal needs to be set up in Rome to deal only with abuse cases, run by expert investigators, and testimony needs to be heard. This is something the commission advised in 2015 but is yet to materialise. and then return to Rome to get a grip on the scandal at last Especially the children the church failed to protect Catherine Pepinster is a former editor of The Tablet and the author of The Keys and the Kingdom: the British and the Papacy from John Paul II to Francis but Boris Johnson’s conversion to Catholicism shows how far we’ve come Johnson’s religious life has been as chequered as his political career Baptised as a baby into the Roman Catholic faith of his mother he veered off at Eton into Anglicanism and was confirmed into the Church of England Little is known of Johnson’s faith in the years that followed apart from that Chilterns gag: he was busy editing the Spectator performing tripwire stunts as mayor of London and developing a reputation for a rackety private life But now the radio signal seems to be coming through loud and clear although it’s been retuned to the old ways – a sort of religious equivalent of rediscovering the Home Service the Catholic church makes clear distinctions between Catholics who marry in the Catholic church – a sacrament that therefore requires an annulment if the person wants a second church wedding after a civil divorce – and Catholics like Boris who marry elsewhere first time round – not a sacrament and not valid their marriages in their churches are deemed valid Then there is the issue of the prime minister’s role in the Church of England. Under the Catholic Relief Act of 1829, “no person professing the Catholic religion” is allowed to advise the monarch on the appointment of Anglican bishops. Doing so would render Johnson guilty of a “high misdemeanour” and he would be banished from office. The likely solution is that the Lord Chancellor, Robert Buckland, will deal with the matter. For Catholics themselves, whatever they may think of Johnson’s denominational somersaults, having a Catholic prime minister is a watershed moment. However much others have achieved in high office in recent years – running the BBC, becoming civil service permanent secretaries, heading Oxford colleges – nothing compares to running the country. We really have come in from the cold. Read moreIt’s not a photocall likely to impress Scottish Catholics Once a bloc vote that Labour could rely on the Catholic constituency switched sides to the SNP in recent decades after Alex Salmond assiduously cultivated the country’s Catholic bishops has made inroads among Muslim voters too – clear evidence that religion can still play its part in UK politics Labour also used to be the natural party of Catholics in England and Wales at a time when they were mostly working-class migrants with a smattering of posh converts and recusants But that aspiration is not necessarily enough to persuade them to vote for fellow believer Johnson unless he can convince them he really does share their solidarity with those out of work and out of pocket after the pandemic Now there’s a new musical that would require a chapter of its own in that doctoral thesis about religious visions. And if Bernadette de Lourdes takes off it won’t just be filling theatre seats but could draw more visitors restoring the economic fortunes of the French pilgrimage centre it has just opened in Lourdes and tells the story of the town’s most famous daughter: Bernadette Soubirous who in 1858 saw a series of 18 apparitions of the Virgin Mary they explore the magnetism of the lead character and conflicts to be faced stubbornly stuck to her story of the visions of the beautiful lady who had urged her to dig for a spring – the lady was the Virgin Mary and the spring became the healing waters of the grotto of Lourdes in which the feast of the assumption of Mary is celebrated But there aren’t enough year-round visitors any more Even the main basilica has suffered: donations have been falling for nearly a decade This might be due to a decline in Christianity or to Lourdes becoming as much a shrine to tat as to the Virgin Mary All those souvenir shops selling tourist kitsch from plastic Virgin Marys filled with water from the grotto recently appointing a bishop to try to accentuate the spiritual values of Lourdes again above the financial And those values are certainly there – and it’s those that cause me to regret not making a pilgrimage For at its best Lourdes is an antidote to a Love Island culture where physical perfection celebrity and material wealth are the top priorities It’s not the miraculous cures that are said to happen at Lourdes that attract me The more I hear about it from people who have ventured there and what I’ve read about it I realise that Lourdes stands for something that is often lacking in everyday life It is a place where the first are last and the last first The true miracle at Lourdes is the way in which sick people take centre stage Lourdes functions because of the many volunteers who help look after the sick and take them down into the baths to the healing waters There are specialist medical staff available but the volunteers many of whom use their annual leave to do this work ensure that those who are ill or disabled are the top priority Many of them are young and say the encounter with people with illness and disabilities has changed their approach to life and helped them make friends with people they would otherwise never have met As one of them said: “Lourdes teaches us that we are all equal in God’s eyes.” It’s rare to have that sense of people’s equal worth endorsed elsewhere but spirits seem to be withering from neglect; depression and anxiety are rife ‘Donations have been falling for nearly a decade This might be due to a decline in Christianity or it might be due to Lourdes becoming as much a shrine to tat as to the Virgin Mary.’ Photograph: Pascal Pavani/AFP/Getty ImagesThe new musical is not the first attempt at dramatising what happened to the young peasant girl filmed in 1943 and starring Jennifer Jones But the book it was based on is quite different and that it was written at all is remarkable were refugees who in 1940 fled first to Paris and then to the Pyrenees Various Catholic peasant families took it in turns to hide them in their homes There they were told about Bernadette by people whose grandparents were alive at the time of her visions Werfel pledged to write a book about her if he lived In it he told the story of the young peasant whose near-destitute family lived in a disused prison cell and who was to the town’s bourgeoisie the unlikeliest of people to receive a vision of the mother of God But with integrity and courage she stood by her visions when the town authorities and the church belittled her Eventually those same sceptics became the cynics who turned Lourdes into a tourist trap as much as a pilgrimage site and Emile Zola wrote a blistering denunciation of Lourdes’ commercialism Not that Lourdes is unique in combining God and mammon Tourism in the west owes its origins to Christian pilgrimage where Thomas Becket was murdered in the cathedral in 1170 Yet they all still offer something else: a crossingpoint between the materialism of this world and the yearning of people for a connection with something quite different The huge basilica above the shrine at Lourdes is a symbol of the wealth and power of the Catholic church But it is the grotto and the baths that visitors remember which represent something much more powerful: a faith that cannot be fully contained by institutions but is expressed through a communal experience that so many people today seek but often do not find Catherine Pepinster is a former editor of the Tablet and author of The Keys and the Kingdom: the British and the Papacy Cardinals are already thinking about a successor to Pope Francis – and the conservative faction may aspire to someone more traditional Benedict was a renowned theologian and an enforcer of Catholic doctrine who earned the nickname “God’s rottweiler” for his pursuit of those he thought errant but he will be most remembered for his dramatic resignation in 2013 – the first pope in 600 years to quit rather than die in office “Having before God examined my conscience over and over I have come to the certain knowledge that my strength is no longer suitable for properly administering the Petrine office,” he wrote but he lasted almost another 10 years before dying at the age of 95 on New Year’s Eve cardinals come from across the globe to bury him and elect his successor But when he leads Benedict’s funeral on 5 January the cardinals may well wonder if they will be back in Rome soon for another conclave Francis himself is already physically frail had bowel surgery in 2021 and since May has used a wheelchair in public He recently quipped that a wheelchair was not an issue for a pope – “One governs with the head not the knee” – but also revealed that he had a signed resignation letter deposited with the Vatican’s secretary of state that could be accepted if he became incapacitated There are some in the Roman Catholic church who would dearly love another pope to be elected very soon While Francis and Benedict might not have been quite the buddies they appeared to become in the humorous Netflix account of their relationship But that cordiality is not shared by everyone a figure described as both a native fertility image and Our Lady of the Amazon Two arch-conservative men took the statues and threw them in the Tiber river saying “they do not belong in a Catholic church” These are extreme examples of the divisions in the Roman Catholic church divisions that can lead to healthy dialogue over the importance of both tradition and change Benedict will be remembered for striving to pull the Roman Catholic church back towards tradition and even the restoration of discarded ritual He will also be remembered for his condemnation of what he called the “dictatorship of relativism” in which definitive values are abandoned and individuals focus on satisfying their own desires striving to make the Roman Catholic church a more inclusive place that engages the laity more fully in its life The tensions between these two notions of the church will be at the heart of any discussions about the future of a faith shared by billions around the globe The official line of the Roman Catholic church is that when the cardinals enter the conclave to elect a new pope the Holy Spirit guides them in prayer to find the right candidate He certainly gets a helping hand: there are plenty of prelates keen to ensure their man is chosen But behind closed doors there are other sessions Read moreWho will the cardinals elect next time have to accept that cardinals are as human as the rest of us But maybe we should offer a prayer that the Holy Spirit may help them find someone who could be what a pope always used to be – a unifying figure the world’s attention will be on what is happening at the Vatican But the Catholic church is so much more than that it is not only the provider of spiritual comfort but of vital services to people in need across the world It runs schools and hospitals in developing countries and helps to lift people out of poverty not plotting like politicians over the future of the papacy Catherine Pepinster is a former editor of the Tablet and the author of The Keys and the Kingdom: The British and the Papacy Richard Chartres reads a conspectus of the monarchy and religion IN THE spate of books occasioned by the Platinum Jubilee Defenders of the Faith by Catherine Pepinster focuses on the connection between monarchy and religion and speculates on the form of the next coronation The author has previously published a book on contemporary relations between the British and the Papacy She is a distinguished Roman Catholic commentator often to be heard on Radio 4’s Thought for the Day After a helpful first chapter summarising the spiritual ideal of kingship in the Old and New Testaments Pope Leo X awarded the young King Henry VIII the title of Fidei Defensor It was recognition for Henry’s book In Defence of the Seven Sacraments which denounced the teachings of Martin Luther A subsequent pope deprived Henry of the title but it was restored to the King by Parliament in 1544 “F.D.” appears on our coins and remains to this day a part of the formal style of the British Monarch of the monarchy and religion before the present reign It is the Queen’s religion and that of Prince Charles which forms the heart of the book of the reign of James II does not help us to understand why the Bill of Rights in 1689 so explicitly barred the throne to a Roman Catholic monarch Pepinster says that “the evidence shows that he [James] was keen to find a way to religious toleration The English were not prepared for it.” I question whether this is the whole story The ease with which an avowedly Protestant rebellion led by the Duke of Monmouth was snuffed out in 1685 underlines the widespread support for James and his government at the beginning of the king’s reign The parliamentary elections in March 1685 revealed that the vast majority of the political nation was willing to accept a Roman Catholic king as long as he was content to rule within the parameters of the established constitution in Church and State was it possible for another invader to land a substantial army in the West Country and provoke James’s flight Modern scholarship — notably Steve Pincus in his outstanding 2009 book 1688: The first modern revolution — pays James the tribute of recognising his radical ambition to remodel the state after French absolutist lines complete with a centralising bureaucracy and a professional standing army it is impossible to provide the details that are available in a number of recent studies but it is very important to recognise that we are not dealing with any simple Catholic v One of the severest critics of the policies of both James and his mentor Neither of the modernising monarchs had any intention of submitting to papal control of the Church in their domains The RC Church since Vatican II has changed so profoundly that the fears of 1689 appear exaggerated The most valuable part of Defenders of the Faith shows how Queen Elizabeth II has responded to the vastly changed ecumenical and interfaith picture since the Second World War of the seriousness with which Prince Charles has engaged with a variety of religious themes and traditions After commenting on the impact of the Coronation of 1953 Pepinster traces the way in which Elizabeth II’s articulation of Christian ideals has developed and been tested by the messy realities of family and national life she has been increasingly explicit about her faith she has affirmed her loyalty to Jesus Christ as a model for the servant-kingship that she has sought to embody she has helped to redefine the part that it plays In a speech at Lambeth Palace as part of the Diamond Jubilee celebrations in 2012 “The Church has a duty to protect the free practice of all faiths in this country.” She went on to say that “gently and assuredly the Church of England has created an environment for other faith communities and indeed people of no faith to live freely.” It is a point of view that is expressed in the annual Commonwealth Day observances in Westminster Abbey Such a definition of the Church would have seemed strange in most previous reigns that a non-oppressive Anglican establishment serves to keep the public square open to voices of faith It is unlikely that any other religious body could inherit such a position and possible that a total divorce between Church and State represented by a secularised monarchy would result in a shift to the French position in which “faith” as such is relegated to the margins of public life THE touchy artist is not just a mod­ern phenomenon Even in the days when the Church was the main pat­ron of you could not guarantee that your favoured composer or painter would provide adornments to the faith in meek compliance that any future Defenders of the Faith will reign over a country vastly different from Churchill’s Britain in 1953 Pepinster explores some of the implications for a future coronation and reflects on the lessons to be drawn from other cultures notably the rituals surrounding the inauguration of a new Japanese Emperor It is clear that some changes are inevitable The prominent role of the hereditary aristocracy in the Queen’s own coronation is unsustainable in present circumstances It may be that there is a place for reviving the tradition discontinued after the disastrous and very expensive fiasco of George IV’s coronation in which a great reception in Westminster Hall followed the service in the Abbey This would give the government of the day an opportunity to develop the traditional “recognition” of the new monarch to embrace the diversity of modern Britain No one would envy those who are even now considering these matters but they will be grateful for the insights contained in this book as they look ahead The Rt Revd Lord Chartres is a former Bishop of London Read an extract from the book here Defenders of the Faith: The British monarchy, religion and the next generationCatherine PepinsterHodder & Stoughton £25(978-1-399-80006-8)Church Times Bookshop £20 Save money on books reviewed or featured in the Church Times > Click on the “Church Times Bookshop” link at the end of the review The reader discount is valid for two months after the review publication date run jointly by Sarum College and The Church Times tickets available This online seminar, run jointly by Modern Church and The Church Times discusses the theology underpinning the drive for growth tickets available We are a partnership of six diverse and welcoming congregations in the northern districts of Milton Keynes offering a rich tapestry of worshipping traditions – Anglican USPG is looking to appoint 3 Trustees (lay or ordained) committed to global mission within the Anglican Communion The Diocese of Gloucester is looking for a practical team member to join the Department of Mission and Ministry who brings a creative and flexible approach as we seek to develop and implement innovative approaches to collaborative ministry across the Diocese The Bishop of Lincoln seeks an ordained colleague to lead in vocational discernment within the Diocese The Diocese of London is delighted to welcome applications for the position of Area Director of Ministry (Willesden) and Diocesan Clergy Wellbeing Adviser Read reports from issues stretching back to 1863 search for your parish or see if any of the clergy you know get a mention Explore the archive Non-subscribers can read four articles for free each month Since Éamon de Valera drew up the constitution of Ireland in 1937 believing that the Catholic church was central to Irish identity nation and church have been inextricably linked with the people of Ireland voting to back abortion – and therefore rejecting the teaching of the Catholic church that is opposed to it – there has been a severing of that link It is not the only place in Europe where the church is in trouble for across the continent it has become caught up in different nations’ struggles over their identity has become remarkably secular in recent times Both places have a history of being suppressed by the English Quebec’s people once held on to their French tongue and heritage and their Catholic faith as expressions of being Québécois But as Quebec province gained more autonomy and the Canadian government gave French equal status with English as the official language so Catholicism became less prominent a part of Quebec’s identity so the need to cleave to the church as part of Irish identity has declined Catholic bishops have expressed strong disquiet about it It has happened in Australia; even in the US which remains a strongly Christian country there has been a fall-off in mass attendance While the tide of faith has been ebbing for so many in the west it still thunders on the shores of other parts of the world Many people seem to make a distinction between the church which they perceive as strongly authoritarian who remains highly popular with believers and non-believers who like his focus on mercy rather than rigid adherence to rules he is due to visit Ireland and it will be a moment for both church and people to think again about their relationship Many people may consider the abortion vote a rejection of an oppressive but if the new secular Ireland is stridently antipathetic to the church then that is replacing one form of illiberalism with another For there is much to celebrate about the Catholic church that too many in Europe, including in Ireland, forget: it educates more girls than any other organisation in the world; its charity arm, Caritas is the biggest global aid organisation after the Red Cross But the church has to find a way of existing in newly secular societies Officials in Rome have told me they are fascinated by the example of Britain where the church has learned to negotiate secular parameters Typical of this were the comments of Cardinal Vincent Nichols He made clear his concerns about abortion but also stressed that the church has to be consistently pro-life in action including being “in support of women who are trapped in difficult and painful circumstances” Lack of such an empathetic tone has lost the church support elsewhere in secular Europe Now it has to take the imaginative leap to find it Listening to women – not always a strong point in an all-male priesthood – is a place to start Catherine Pepinster is the author of The Keys and the Kingdom: The British and the Papacy Papal visits were high points in the progress this investigation recalls CATHERINE PEPINSTER was the lively editor of the Roman Catholic weekly The Tablet for 13 years she had a unique view of the UK and Vatican relationships covering news events during those years as they happened and so also having a key to understanding the pontificates of John Paul II She is also personally committed to Anglican-Roman Catholic ecumenism This shows in her sympathetic but also realistic description of the Anglicans who play their part in this story whether as Ambassadors to the Holy See — who are significant sources of information and opinion in this book — or Archbishops of Canterbury themselves Part One sketches the complex history of Roman Catholics in Britain Though the book is not a history of this convoluted relationship Pepinster’s short résumé of the sociologies reminds us how ignorant many are of that turbulent history She could have told her readers just a little more about Cardinal Consalvi and the Duke of Wellington hints to further reading on the detail of earlier history including a collection of papers presented at a colloquium in Rome in 2012 on the visit of Pope John Paul II to the UK and the restoration of full diplomatic relations with the Holy See there is also Britain and the Holy See (British Embassy to the Holy See/Venerable English College Pepinster emphasises the centrality and importance of schools and education in British Catholic policy She touches on the British need for diplomatic contact with the Vatican during the First World War and after as well as the better-known story of Sir D’Arcy Osborne in the Vatican during the Second World War — see Britain and the Vatican During the Second World War by Owen Chadwick (Cambridge Pepinster then traces high points in relations with the British Establishment during the times of Cardinals Hume and Murphy O’Connor but also the curiously changing and uncertain policies of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office towards the Vatican the UK cannot make up its mind whether it should treat the Vatican as San Marino or China Particularly interesting are her comparative descriptions of the preparations for the visits of Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI The first visit was almost cancelled because of the Falklands War and there was continual nervousness about it not only in Protestant quarters but also among figures such as Enoch Powell Part Two smoothly changes gear to look at specifics Pepinster concentrates on the visible signs and gestures of ecumenism rather than the documents of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commissions There is a balanced discussion of the ordination of women in the Church of England and she is good on Rome’s sometimes puzzled perception of the Anglican Communion Note the changes in style of her successive papal audiences since 1951 and the development of a multifaith UK in which the Sovereign remains Supreme Governor of the Church of England There follows an important and fascinating chapter on Northern Ireland and the Troubles including Cardinal Hume and the Guildford Four Pepinster makes use of Irish as well as British sources and contrasts Cardinals Hume and O’Fiaich of Armagh including the falling-out of Cardinal Winning and the Prime Minister of the day She catalogues the spectacular fall of Cardinal O’Brien as well as the switch of Scottish Catholics from Labour to the SNP After reflection on the charisma of popes as world leaders citing Eamon Duffy on popes’ not being superstars Pepinster surveys contemporary sociological surveys and the positive relationship between the RC hierarchy and the C of E bishops Grace Davie and Ronald Preston are appropriately cited it is that many of the sources quoted are taped interviews: some questions could have been taken further from the Lambeth Palace archives Yet Pepinster’s chosen method gives her book a directness that makes for engaged reading Her excellent account is especially interesting on the political and diplomatic aspects The Rt Revd Christopher Hill is President of the Conference of European Churches The Keys and the Kingdom: The British and the Papacy from John Paul II to FrancisCatherine PepinsterBloomsbury £16.99(978-0-567-66631-4)Church Times Bookshop £15.30 and PCC wish to appoint an Associate Priest within the Ripon Cathedral benefice responsible for the parish of Sharow with Copt Hewick and Marton-le-Moor Are you an experienced leader with a passion for community engagement and collaborative ministry Are you being called to serve God in Egham Alexander Faludy reads a study of martyrdom in history and today MARGARET CLITHEROW was executed at York on Good Friday 1586 Clitherow naked (and pregnant) had 400kg of stones piled on her until her rib cage cracked Her crime: hiding priests in defiance of Elizabethan recusancy laws Anglican establishment has not always been a matter of woolly toleration but its approach is anything but sectarian Catherine Pepinster shows how the “ecumenism of blood” has brought Christians closer together in recent decades: sharing in liturgical celebration of each other’s faithful witnesses the author praises “the recognition Anglicans gave the Salvadoran archbishop as a martyr long before the Catholic Church had officially done so” the formal criteria for recognising a martyrdom in the Roman Catholic Church rested on the concept of odium fidei — death occasioned specifically by “hatred of the faith” martyrdom’s definition has been stretched by liberals and conservatives alike John Paul II declared his fellow Pole Fr Maximillian Kolbe a “Martyr of Charity”: recognition that his death in Auschwitz was occasioned by his sacrificial humanitarian commitment with the contention of the liberation theologian John Sobrino that death occasioned by odium iustitiae (hatred of justice) is also martyrdom Pepinster argues that these developments may not be a case of a “change” so much as recovery of older understandings “Human good can become divine good if it is referred to God; therefore any human good can be a cause of martyrdom.” Its content is arranged in two complementary halves: “Chronology” and “Themes” the latter exploring how categories such as gender and nationalism affect later perceptions of martyrdom The research underpinning this book is wide-ranging but sometimes uneven — especially on religion in Eastern Europe Poland was not (as stated) “intensely Catholic” from 966 onwards 35 per cent of Poles belonged to other religious traditions it is strange to jump (in the chronological section) straight from the patristic era to the Reformation Doing so means overlooking the development of distinctive “missionary martyrdom” in the medieval period though devotion to figures such as Boniface The author’s discussion of the visual culture of martyrdom is notably impressive especially as concerns the early modern period Pepinster adroitly explains how violent 16th-century sectarian strife in Europe revolutionised the depiction of early Christian and medieval martyrs Fifteenth-century depictions of historic martyrdom were typically stylised and arranged so as to reveal the martyr’s heroic qualities and patient Against the background of the Counter-Reformation martyrdom became more about victims than about heroes Baroque martyr depictions provoke sympathy more than they excite admiration Pathos overwhelms the viewer on beholding the operation of “torture racks and desecration” on the martyr’s person Pepinster cites Caravaggio’s Martyrdom of St Matthew (1600) for the Church of San Luigi dei Francesi (the “French church”) in Rome as the foremost exemplar of this trend Since the killings of French Roman Catholics for their faith in Nice on 29 October The Revd Alexander Faludy is a priest pursuing studies in law Martyrdom: Why martyrs still matterCatherine PepinsterSPCK £25(978-0-281-08165-3)Church Times Bookshop special offer price £19.99 These rural parishes lie in the beautiful Peak District National Park The area has hundreds of thousands of visitors exploring the story of self-sacrifice during the plague at Eyam walking and cycling on the wild moors and gritstone edges and live God’s love in our community" With Ash Wednesday marking the start of Lent tomorrow the King’s thoughts will be doubtless be turning to an important moment in the year of a Monarch and an occasion he will not want to miss An ancient Christian ceremony mixing leadership and service next month's Maundy Thursday service sees the Monarch hand out specially minted Maundy coins while the feet of his subjects are ceremonially washed Stretching back to the Middle Ages, the Maundy Service commemorates the the Last Supper, when Christ washed the feet of his disciples but also remembers the commitment to serve made in the King's Coronation vows It is no accident that Handel’s Zadok the Priest - heard at every Coronation since that of George II - is sung each year Yet with King Charles now receiving cancer treatment, there is every chance he will not be there this year (the venue is yet to be disclosed) leaving this duty to  - most likely  - his heir, Prince William. The task would certainly remind the prince of his destiny – and of how very much that future is bound up with Christian faith. It would also raise some questions that nag a little more insistently with every passing year: just what does Prince William believe? And how committed is he to the Church of England he will one day lead. There can be no doubt about his father, King Charles, just as there was no doubt about his grandmother, the late Queen Elizabeth. Charles’s considerable faith is very real and has sustained him over the years. Amid the considerable coverage given over the years to the King’s interest in other faiths, especially Islam and Judaism, his own strong Christian beliefs have sometimes been overlooked. This is a mistake. Charles prays frequently. He uses overtly reverential language, referring to ‘Our Lord Jesus Christ’ rather than just ‘Jesus’, for example. He had his own chapel built in the grounds of his home, Highgrove House in Gloucestershire. Some of the greatest influences on him are devout believers, including the former Bishop of London, Lord Chartres, the Bishop of Southwark, the late Mervyn Stockwood, the Jungian and Cambridge chaplain, the Rev Harry Williams and the poet, Kathleen Raine. Despite some early questions about how the King would style himself at his Coronation, he chose to be Defender of Faith. Speaking to the nation for the first time after his accession, he used these words: ‘I solemnly pledge myself throughout the remaining time God grants me.’ Eight months later, he was greeted at his Coronation by a choir boy – the youngest person there – who stepped forward and said: ‘Your Majesty, as children of the kingdom of God we welcome you in the name of the King of Kings. And Charles replied: ‘In his name and after his example, I come not to be served but to serve’. The consolation of faith was something that his mother, Elizabeth II also knew. A keen a reader of Scripture, she knew the Anglican Book of Common Prayer intimately, and her most treasured possessions included a special book of prayers prepared to help her prepare for her 1953 Coronation by the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Geoffrey Fisher. When she was dying, a church minister read to her from the Bible. If Elizabeth II’s was a simple Anglican faith, sustained by Sunday church attendance throughout her life, her son’s interest in religion seems to be more like that of his father, Prince Philip – full of curiosity and a sense of adventurous exploration. His great friend, Lord Chartres, once told me that the King ‘is enthralled by religion’. That fascination does not seem to be shared with the Prince of Wales. There is little evidence of his own religious beliefs, although he was christened as a baby and later confirmed by Lord Chartres. By the time Charles was in his forties – the age that William is at now – he was regularly given lengthy speeches about religion and ethics. Speechmaking is not William’s forte, it is true. He prefers practical action. Where there is evidence of his interest in faith, it is in his strong connections to religious organisations that work at the grassroots, helping those who are homeless. About such things, he is passionate. His charitable commitment has not, however, been enough to prevent speculation that William might cut ties with the Church of England when his time comes. That he would not be Supreme Governor. According to biographer Robert Hardman's new book, Charles III - New King, New Court, William is not a regular church-goer and 'is not instinctively comfortable in a faith environment.' Not that the prince could change the relationship unilaterally, for the British monarchy and the Established Church, the Church of England, are so bound up together that he could not become King without being ‘in communion with’ the Church of England, according to the Act of Settlement, 1701. Constitutional experts Robert Hazell and Bob Morris wrote recently that: ‘However right in principle, removing the restriction on the monarch’s freedom of belief would in practice raise questions about the new changed constitutional status of the Church of England together with the roles of parliament and the monarchy towards religion at large’. Today and in the immediate future, the King’s siblings and children will be more concerned for his health than the constitutional niceties of church attendance. But whoever hands out Maundy money to the 75 chosen citizens – 75 to mark Charles’s age – on March 28, this much will be unavoidable: Christian faith, which at the heart of the King’s life and looked-for recovery, is at the very heart of Monarchy itself. Major terror attack 'was just HOURS away' before it was foiled by the special forces and police:... Victim of acid attack 'plotted by his ex-partner who teamed up with a gang' dies in hospital six... We are trapped in unsellable newbuild homes after a £52m dual carriageway was built on our... Pub is forced to pay family £75,000 after wrongly accusing them of 'dine and dash' over £150... Horror as $4.5M influencer-laden yacht SINKS off Miami... after glam women made a rookie maritime... How Meghan's biggest cheerleader brokered Harry's disastrous BBC interview - three months after... Woman dead and three others including a child injured after car ploughed into pedestrians: Man, 49,... 'It's a rather giant f*** you.' 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What does Prince William actually believe asks CATHERINE PEPINSTER?Commenting on this article has endedNewest{{#isModerationStatus}}{{moderationStatus}} The back wall of the flooded house began to cave in as he spoke with the situation deteriorating quickly as furniture and other household goods fell through the collapsing floors Moments later cameras caught two people jumping from the rooftop of the house into a neighbouring building Celebrities borrowing from religious imagery is nothing new The bigger issue is why many see their faith as being more relevant to the past than the present He also said the Met had been respectful and guests polite and friendly. So if there was any cultural appropriation, the Vatican encouraged it, given the loans from its collections. After all, the church is itself a past master at appropriation. It took pagan symbols and traditions such as mistletoe and eggs to become parts of Christmas and Easter. In parts of Africa and Latin America, music and dance of different cultures have often been incorporated into Catholic liturgies. Read moreWhat Dolan’s appreciation of the show reveals is the extent to which the Catholic church wants to engage with contemporary culture Heavenly Bodies is evidence of new thinking inside the Vatican neither borrowing nor lending to other galleries as has the attitude of the Sistine Chapel choir which now engages with other musicians too Much of this is down to the influence of Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi president of the Pontifical Council for Culture who first involved the church in exhibiting at Venice’s art biennale in 2013 The Heavenly Bodiesshow highlights not only this engagement, but also shows quite how profound an influence Catholicism can have on culture has said that when he started researching religions and fashion he discovered that most of the designers he was studying were baptised Catholics Catholicism is certainly a visual religion: visit a church and you will find statues of the Virgin Mary Catholic iconography isn’t just found in church either My Catholic grandmother kept a statue of the Sacred Heart in her kitchen and used it for her spare elastic bands: if she’d been granny to Gaultier Something else is evident about the designers chosen for the Met’s show: their imaginations were fired by the church it’s more likely that the designers are horrified by the church’s record on abuse and find its approach to sex Cardinal Dolan has said he had conversations at the Met Ball with people speaking fondly of their Catholic childhoods He and Pope Francis need to think hard about why rather than a guiding light for the present Catherine Pepinster is the author of The Keys and the Kingdom: The British and the Papacy Canterbury Cathedral, where Becket was killed in December 1170 following a bitter dispute with King Henry II, became a shrine after Pope Alexander III made Becket a saint following the murder. It drew thousands of pilgrims from England and across Europe until the shrine was destroyed in 1538 by Henry VIII. In recent times the site of Becket’s murder has again attracted visitors, and Canterbury Cathedral is to host a series of celebrations in 2020 to mark the anniversaries, including a major church service, jointly held by Catholics and Anglicans, and an exhibition of artefacts linked to Becket. Given the destruction during the Reformation, when Henry VIII broke with Rome and ordered the dissolution of the monasteries, Canterbury itself has little left of Becket’s body or his belongings. But the tunic – or more properly tunicle, a garment worn to celebrate mass – escaped destruction because it was given to the pope by Henry’s father, Henry VII, 50 years earlier and kept in Rome. It has since been housed in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, one of the great papal churches of Rome. Negotiations have been going on for some time between the Vatican and the Church of England over how to commemorate Becket’s anniversary, including the loan of the tunic. Among those also involved have been the Foreign Office – via the British embassy to the Holy See – and Father Robert McCulloch, procurator general of the Missionary Society of St Columban, who suggested the tunic might be loaned to Canterbury. Devotion to Becket by pilgrims from all walks of life inspired Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, and in the 20th century he was the subject of TS Eliot’s verse drama Murder in the Cathedral. Another play, by French playwright Jean Anouilh, was the inspiration for the 1964 film Becket, starring Richard Burton as Thomas Becket and Peter O’Toole as Henry II. The killing of Becket shocked Catholic Europe to the core. The archbishop had long been a close friend of Henry II but they fell out, with spectacular rows over whether the crown or the church had more authority over the clergy and the people. Outraged by Becket’s defiance of him, Henry is reported to have said the now-famous line: “Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest.” Four knights took the king at his word and killed Becket, attacking him with their swords in his own cathedral. After his shrine’s destruction, Becket’s body is thought to have been burned or reburied elsewhere. According to John Butler, author of 1995 book The Quest for Becket’s Bones: the Mystery of the Relics of St Thomas Becket, a reliquary, or casket for holding a sacred object, was opened at Santa Maria Maggiore in 1992. It was said to contain Becket’s tunic sprinkled with his blood. Scientists from Munich University confirmed that it was most probably authentic. Priests at Santa Maria Maggiore are enthusiastic about the loan, which needs approval by Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, the Vatican’s culture minister. Ravasi has previously loaned vestments to a fashion show at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. Jane Walker, spokeswoman for Canterbury Cathedral, said: “We are at the planning stage for our 2020 commemoration of Becket. It’s very exciting if the tunic comes from Rome.” This is the archive of The Observer up until 21/04/2025. The Observer is now owned and operated by Tortoise Media. This comprehensive book was first published to coincide with the late Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee, which had the rather Star Trek sounding subtitle The British monarchy, religion, and the next generation. It has been revised and expanded to reflect on the implications for religion in Britain, particularly of the Church of England of the coronation of King Charles III. The first part of the book traces the roots of Christian faith, language, and symbolism in the British monarchy in general, and the coronation, in particular. The book then explores what these things meant for the late Queen Elizabeth II and her consort Prince Philip. The book concludes with a reflection on whether there will be a substantial change of tone when King Charles III is crowned. This later section does possess some of the Royal correspondent type sources close to the palace language but is generally illuminating and suggestive. The book contains helpful details concerning King Charles personal statements about his faith, his musing on being “Defender of the faith, and the role of Camilla. Some constitutional and ecclesiastical historians might take issue with some of the details here, but what is clear is that the links between Christian faith and symbolism, and the British Royal family are clear and integral. The author writes of the coronation on 6 May: “It is a ceremony that is about connecting us with the past, understanding the present and thinking about the future. It may even point the way to God. It will certainly shape this country’s narrative for years to come.” Read the book to be informed and pray that the coronation will indeed point the way to God. John Woods is a writer and Bible teacher based in West Sussex. He is Director of Training at the School of Preachers in Riga, Latvia. No pain that any of us suffers from discovering that some of our priests abused children – and even worse – that senior clergy covered up their crimes – can compare with the victims' plight but it has knocked for six many devout Catholics' faith Some have left the church because of it; others are certainly more sceptical or even more cynical about the way the church is run and the way that power is used and exploited Quite a few are clinging on by their fingertips fretting not only about the abuse crisis but the way that a church that flung open the shutters to the world 50 years ago because of the reforms of the Second Vatican Council According to novelist Hilary Mantel, we're all guilty by association. This weekend the author of Wolf Hall and the newly published Bring Up The Bodies told interviewer Lynn Barber that Catholics weren't quite the ticket "I think that nowadays the Catholic church is not an institution for respectable people" one of the most experienced interviewers around describing this remark as "strong" although it also had a curiously quaint and dated feel to it she discovered that much of her remark was down to the abuse crisis with Mantel going on to damn priests and nuns for being "among the worst people I knew" All those years writing favourably about Thomas Cromwell seem to have got to Mantel It's the talk you would expect from advocates of "no popery in England" And of course her claims will be persuasive to some because they do touch on the truth: the abuse crisis and the way the Church has dealt with it has been deeply shocking and many people have ghastly memories of priests and nuns from their childhood the founder of Childline once pointed out to me child abuse and its cover-up is not a Catholic issue and paedophiles will always seek out ways in which to exercise their distorted power over children And the Catholic church in Britain has painfully learnt lessons about abuse But there is something else about Mantel's comments that bugs me I think she's unwittingly come up with the best line possible for a new marketing campaign: "The Catholic church – not an institution for respectable people." It reminds me of a priest a few years ago who told me that a young woman came to him who'd got pregnant and been thrown out by her parents He told her story to one of his parishioners saying he didn't think the girl could cope on her own in a flat but wasn't sure what to do to help And it makes me think of another priest I know who was trying to help some asylum seekers living in lousy accommodation and in the end decided they might as well move in with him who have been helped by charities such as The Passage and the Cardinal Hume Centre None of these people are exactly respectable – with complicated chaotic lives – but Catholics and their institutions have tried to do their bit and have welcomed them in Mantel did admit to Barber one benefit of Catholicism: that it had been the best training ground possible for a writer. She's said it before, too, talking about "the real cliche, the sense of guilt". But that sort of Graham Greene Catholicism is fading away It's hard nowadays to be terrorised by your confessor They're more likely to say – and I quote verbatim from inside the box: "You're too hard on yourself Perhaps if the Catholic church does go backwards as many of us fear it is in danger of doing it might produce another generation of novelists But we'd be much better Christians if we stayed unrespectable Follow Comment is free on Twitter @commentisfree shows that most people neither support nor oppose the actual visit So it's the trip's status that sticks in the craw But people need to get a few things straight So the pope won't be the guest of honour at a vast banquet at Buckingham Palace nor will there be a ride down the Mall with the Queen with all the attendant pomp nor will the pope stay at Buckingham Palace and be waited on there by flunkeys given the Queen is currently resident at Balmoral for her annual holiday there and the absence of these events will make the visit vastly cheaper for the taxpayer the protests about the papal state visit are much noisier than any protests about visits by other heads of state that some people might object to coming here Where were the loud cries of disgust at the appearance of heads of state from China despite their track records on human rights issues Does the pope really deserve to be singled out in this way And that reference I just made to heads of state: yes and that's why he gets a state visit (just not too fancy a one) Critics might object to him being accorded this status but the Holy See which forms the central government of the Church is recognised in international law as a sovereign entity And the government of this country has worked out that it can do business with the Holy See That's why Benedict XVI is heading this way There are several reasons why: the Catholic church has a vast network of people on the ground is second only in size to the International Red Cross The Church acts as a useful influence on other nations' views on such vital issues and it's also a superb conduit of information from around the globe; its diplomats are legendary That is why all those British politicians went to Rome No doubt all the media attention will be on the Pope by the media and all the pomp and ceremony of the visit and what I hope will also happen – meetings with abuse victims and a chance to listen to what ordinary Catholics have to say about their church But don't ignore the entourage that is coming too For they're the ones who will do business with their hosts and in their midst are people who run Vatican departments The talks they will hold with civil servants and ministers including a major dinner at Lancaster House will be a chance to discuss some of the most crucial matters affecting the world today with people who could well make a difference The pope will address not just Catholics but the whole nation during his visit he might just have an impact on their lives But this visit could change the lives of people in Africa and Asia too Voters in Dublin celebrate the result of the Irish abortion referendum When Pope Benedict XVI landed in Scotland at the start of his visit to the UK in 2010 members of his entourage on board the papal plane were jittery There had been protests about Benedict’s visit in the run-up to his arrival from people angered by the cost to the taxpayer and by the Catholic Church’s track record on abuse But as his motorcade swept into Edinburgh en route to meet the Queen at Holyrood People were out in force on the route into the capital city On Saturday Pope Francis will also arrive by plane for a whirlwind trip to what was once one of the Catholic Church’s greatest strongholds in Europe If Vatican officials were a trifle nervous about secular Britain’s welcome to a Pope For once-Catholic Ireland has been transformed in the past 40 years and most recently reform to allow limited legalisation of abortion more than half the population came out to greet him Seminaries boomed; Ireland still had so many priests that they were a major export to both the developing world and to the far smaller Catholic community in Britain That has changed: in 1979 93% of the population identified as Catholic when details of Pope Francis’ visit were first announced the trip is happening “as the Church in Ireland struggles to find a new place in Irish society and culture – a very different one from the dominant one it held in the past” By Peter Saunders Part of that culture change is due to the scandals that have beset the Catholic Church in Ireland in recent years and their heavy shadows hang over Pope Francis’ visit There has been revelation after revelation that tested so many people’s faith: of terrible cruelty to vulnerable women in the Magdalene laundries sent there because they became pregnant out of wedlock; forced adoptions of children of unmarried mothers; the scandal of sexual abuse of children by priests and its consequent cover-ups It is no wonder then that this stain on the Church’s reputation is one of the biggest issues on people’s agenda for the papal visit, according to recent research by the Association of Catholic Priests (ACP) in Ireland And after similarly dreadful clerical abuse scandals elsewhere coming to light in the run-up to the visit it became inevitable that Francis would have to meet abuse survivors during his 36-hour trip (This meeting was only announced on Tuesday.) The ACP survey also indicates what a chasm has opened up in Ireland between the hierarchy and Mass-goers They have had enough of the clerical culture – the way in which many priests and bishops see themselves as a special privileged caste with a sacred status bestowed on them at ordination And despite the reforms of the Second Vatican Council which confirmed all the baptised as the people of God participating in the mission of the Church the laity often feel they are treated as if they are at the bottom of the ecclesiastical ladder But the greatest priority among those surveyed is a role for women in a patriarchal Church that is lagging behind other Christian denominations in using their talents and experience by maintaining a male-only priesthood And yet Ireland hasn’t entirely given up on the Church Cultural and sentimental attachment means Catholics still turn to it for rites of passage: for baptisms that despite complaining about clerical culture Irish people I’ve spoken to –some ‘cultural Catholics’ as well as regular Mass-goers – also fret about a shortage of pastors who can give them spiritual succour With just one seminary left in Ireland and most priests over the age of 60 the unthinkable might happen: churches may close By Julie Bindel No doubt aware of how much Francis needs to reach out to Ireland Vatican officials are risking the possibility of protests and adding to his itinerary a drive through Dublin in his Popemobile Those officials must be pinning their hopes on Francis’ undoubted charisma though even that no longer works the wonders it used to due to what is increasingly seen as lack of action on abuse and doubts that Francis does not fully understand the depths of distress the scandal is causing he will need to quickly understand how much it has changed since he lived there himself Nothing will make that so apparent as his brief meeting with the Taoiseach an openly gay man at the helm of a nation that voted for same-sex marriage Pope Francis, once asked about gay people, famously replied “Who am I to judge?” Newly confident Ireland which no longer perceives Catholicism as integral to its national identity has in recent years judged its own bishops to be wanting This may well be the moment when it judges Pope Francis too Catherine Pepinster is the former editor of The Tablet and author of The Keys and The Kingdom: the British and the papacy from John Paul II to Francis Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value" Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_2" ).setAttribute( "value" Please click here to view our media pack for more information on advertising and partnership opportunities with UnHerd speaking warmly to several thousand journalists crowded into the Vatican's Paul VI hall about their hard work covering his election and passionately of "a poor church for poor people" The gathering was yet more evidence of a church undergoing a fundamental shift mired in countless dramas over leaked Vatican documents worn down by squabbling over the return of retro-liturgies the Catholic church has seemed an exhausted organisation in recent years seems vibrant and engaging and offers a different perspective – focusing on matters of justice The Argentinian pope's emphasis on working with the poor will delight Catholics in Britain and in the poorest parts of the planet where there is a vast network of Catholic schools But this pope is emphatic that the church can't just be a version of Oxfam: it always has to put Christ at its centre While he said that he had taken his papal name from Francis of Assisi his approach – social action alongside deep spirituality – is typical of his own Jesuit order and its founder saints He also spoke of wanting a church that is poor. To Vatican-watchers, this is code for saying that he wants it to be more humble. He himself is eschewing the trappings of office. Rather than wear the red slippers beloved of his predecessor, Benedict XVI Rather than sit on the papal throne to meet the cardinals he walked over to greet them and kissed several on each cheek There will be interest in whether he will reform the curia – the church's governing body – after his remark on Saturday to the press about the church having a structure The state of the Vatican's bureaucracy caused several heated interventions among the cardinals in their talks before the conclave The "VatiLeaks" documents revealed infighting and chaos among the men who run the church and there have been rumours of corruption and even sexual misdemeanours being exposed by an inquiry ordered by Benedict XVI He is said to have left the inquiry report locked in a safe for his successor There are even signs that the Vatican press operation may handle controversy differently In recent years it has struggled with difficult issues particularly the clerical sex abuse scandal which dominated much of Benedict's papacy With the claims that the future pope failed to help two priests from his own Jesuit order working in the slums who were arrested and tortured in 1976 during the Argentinian "dirty war" the press office attempted to get ahead of the story and close it down One issue Catholics will watch closely is how Pope Francis gets on with his predecessor It was first suggested that he would visit the pope emeritus straight away but the Vatican has announced that he will see him next Saturday Then there is Archbishop Georg Gänswein who has a double role as private secretary to the pope emeritus and prefect to the papal household Pope Francis will have to decide whether the archbishop will be a useful intermediary or cannot serve two masters.Catherine Pepinster is editor of the Tablet The three-part drama has recounted the story of Guy Fawkes and his Catholic co-conspirators who in 1605 attempted to express their illegal loyalty to the Catholic faith and the pope by blowing up the protestant King James I and his parliament The leaders of the Catholic church and the Church of England are on close terms That was evident in Westminster Abbey this week at a service to mark 500 years since the Lutheran Reformation attended by both Catholics and Protestants said: “We have learned to love one another again.” There are still theological bridges yet to be crossed; the Catholic church’s insistence that priesthood can only consist of celibate males comes to mind But in an increasingly secular nation such as Britain fellow Christians are no longer the enemy; they are allies Antipathy to Catholic schools is evident too an echo of the “Rome on the rates” loathing when they first appeared in the 19th century But this is not merely a small secular protest: governments of various stripes have sought to forcibly limit the number of places these schools offer to Catholics rather than have the policy thrust upon them A protest against Pope Benedict XVI’s state visit to the UK in 2010 Photograph: Felipe Trueba/EPAWhen David Cameron’s coalition government ruled that at least half of new faith school places must be offered to pupils of other faiths Theresa May announced she was relaxing that policy on the grounds that Catholic schools were more ethnically diverse than other schools May’s intervention was telling: Catholic schools are diverse because of the reach of the church across the globe Read moreThere are obvious differences on issues such as contraception but common accord on education for girls and the vaccination of children against disease When we think of how far we have come since the terrors of the 17th century we should celebrate that the British state can do business with the papacy bringing the benefits of justice and peace to the world And yet that newfound understanding may be in jeopardy it is apparent that they think Britain in the past few years has regrettably turned inward: not so sure of itself on the world stage And Rome is deeply alarmed by any assault on the EU – given the European project thanks to its founders Jean Monnet and Robert Schuman was shaped by the Catholic theologies of solidarity and subsidiarity Watching Gunpowder, it’s clear that England was consumed with paranoia over the threat to its existence from Catholic Europe, a threat rooted in the papacy. In recent years, as I watched the UK develop such a constructive accord with the Holy See, I thought the neurosis had been cured. Now Brexit makes me fear it could return Catherine Pepinster is the author of The Keys and the Kingdom: the British and the Papacy from John Paul II to Francis Just as I was about to talk about religion on the Today programme and had explained this to an eminent QC waiting to speak on another issue he took this as a cue to let rip about how awful faith schools were and how divisive This complaint – I’m opposed to them but I want my kids to go there – is one of the critiques one hears often about faith schools find them desirable because they know that some are highly successful And it’s often their ethos that is responsible The opponents of faith schools regularly talk of them as if they are all alike, all as bad as one anotherEthos is what Ofsted’s newly published annual report has targeted It highlights the school inspectorate’s deep concerns that some faith schools are “spreading beliefs that clash with British values” and that they could undermine tolerance and respect This criticism has been leapt upon by opponents of faith schools, such as the Accord Coalition to bolster the case for all state schools to be inclusive selective faith schools should be scrapped This is the problem with the arguments against faith schools: so often their opponents talk of them as if they are all alike it is used by campaigners to suggest all teaching in all faith schools is poor This latest Ofsted report delves into particularly murky waters. It offers no explanation of what it means by “fundamental British values”. If a school is actively encouraging children to not respect the rule of law or is sowing the seeds of hatred of others, leading to criminal activity, then there is clearly a problem and Ofsted is right to raise it. If a school suggests that girls are inferior to boys and prevents them from learning, say, sciences, or applying to university, then it’s apparent that this is a problem. It contravenes the most basic tenets of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on dignity and equality. Should such schools be damned for their ethics? Or should they be commended for teaching RE at GCSE, where pupils will study ethical debates of this nature? And praised for offering different perspectives from most schools, thus being part of the pluralism on which this country has prided itself? Read moreTargeting faith schools wholesale can have unintended consequences. The Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition introduced a mandatory cap on the intake of believers to all new faith schools requiring that a new institution would take 50% of its pupils from outside its faith population The Catholic church stopped building new schools forbidding it from turning away students based on their Catholic faith with No 10 saying it had been created to make faith schools more diverse but had failed because Catholic schools were more ethnically diverse than others this U-turn appears to have been shunted to one side with education secretary Justine Greening said to have indicated she doesn’t think it a priority But faith schools are a priority – for the thousands who attend them for those critics who rightly want to weed out the worst performers And especially for the parents who want the freedom to choose these schools for their children that freedom is surely a fundamental British value Catherine Pepinster is a writer on religious affairs Former Oklahoma State basketball player Darrell Williams has signed a contract with Verviers-Pepinster of the Basketball League Belgium (BLB) Division I (Scooore according to Texas A&M-Commerce's men's basketball program Williams inks with Verviers-Pepinster Wolves in the League Belgium (BLB) Division I (Scooore! League). #WeAreLions pic.twitter.com/sFvZArJfy2 "I am very thankful to be in this position and have the opportunity to play professional basketball overseas," Williams said via lionathletics.com "I want to thank my coaches and everyone associated with A&M-Commerce basketball for giving me the chance to make this possible." In 2014, the charges against Williams were dropped after new evidence unearthed by nonprofit organization Chicago Innocence Project led the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals to find grounds for a mistrial. Williams was able to receive his diploma from Oklahoma State in May Williams, who averaged 3.8 points and 4.6 rebounds in just 9.4 minutes per game on the Chicago Bulls' Las Vegas summer league team finished his college career with A&M-Commerce earlier this year Williams was named Lone Star Conference Newcomer and Player of the Year after averaging 18.5 points and 12.4 rebounds per game at the Division II school.