Features Archive

2008

May

'I'm certainly not a Little Miss Perfect'
Cherie Blair talks to Peter Stanford about her autobiography, her husband's conversion and meeting Benedict XVI

Tears at the end of a beautiful journey
In the last of three extracts from her new book Alessandra Borghese visits Regensburg, where she meets Pope Benedict and his talented brother

The fanatics gunning for India's Christians
Johnson Padiyara says that the persecution of Christians is not limited to the Muslim world

Leading the flock in Islam's home
For the first time in 13 centuries Christianity is openly practised in Arabia. Richard Rawlinson speaks to the local bishop

The heart of Joseph Ratzinger's Bavaria
In the second of three extracts from her new book Alessandra Borghese visits a shrine which shaped the piety of Joseph Ratzinger

Girls bring a 'second spring' to Downside
Downside's strength at rugby could not mask its falling pupil rolls and poor exam results. But, as Will Heaven finds, the school has seen a transformation

Benedict's difficult days in Munich
In the first of three extracts from her new book Alessandra Borghese visits the city where Joseph Ratzinger served as archbishop

'Even the local Communists approve of us'
Ed West meets American monks in Italy whose popularity crosses political divides

'Fame won't make us neglect our parishes'
Anna Arco meets the singing priests who have just signed a deal with Sony

Nostalgia for nihilism
Peter Mullen on the protests of May 1968

'I'm more use outside the Church'
An interview with John Studzinski, one of the City's most successful bankers

The city where our martyrs once trod
Fr Stewart Foster says that London is full of reminders of our country's martyrs

April

A faithful striving
Robert Ellsberg on the diaries of the saintly Dorothy Day, for whom writing was a form of prayer

Join me on a journey into the unknown
Quentin de la Bédoyère introduces his new Science and Faith column

'I feel I am living at the centre of the world'
An exclusive interview with Fr Pizzaballa, the custodian of the Holy Land

St Dorothy of New York
Stuart Reid writes his first Charterhouse column

The saint who won over the sceptics
This extract from Gerard Noel's new book recounts St Bernadette's struggle to convince the authorities of the truth of the apparitions

The nun helping Iraq's underground exiles
Sister Hatune, known as 'the Iraqi Mother Teresa', is providing a lifeline to Christian women forced into prostitution abroad, says Ed West

'The Pope has not launched a crusade'
The former Muslim Magdi Allam tells Edward Pentin that western critics of his conversion are betraying the ideal of religious freedom

'We don't want to live in a faithless world'
Here we publish the full text of former Prime Minister Tony Blair's speech on faith and globalisation delivered at Westminster Cathedral last week

A law unto themselves?
Ed West and Anna Arco talk to Catholic headteachers about persistent allegations that Church state schools break admissions rules

Christian parents should spare the rod
A whole generation of Christian parenting gurus advocated the use of physical discipline. In this extract from her new book Sarah Johnson argues that contemporary parents should ignore their harmful advice

‘I don’t take myself all that seriously’
Milo Andreas Wagner meets the American South's first cardinal, who, despite being tipped as a future pope, has retained his modest, down-to-earth persona

‘Paul’s inner god told him to do it’
The late Paul Scofield almost missed out on his defining role in the film of Robert Bolt's A Man For All Seasons, says Garry O'Connor

March

'I'm inspired by my father's memory'
Sir Rocco Forte tells John Hinton why his family is sponsoring next month's 'Cardinal's Lectures' at Westminster Cathedral in honour of his late father

John Paul II: the feminist
Michael O'Driscoll marks the third anniversary of the death of the Pontiff

We don't want theocracy or secular tyranny
Last month Quentin de la Bédoyère asked readers to respond to the arguments of a militant secularist. This is what you had to say

Benedict XVI proclaims that baroque is back
The Pope's sartorial choices are provoking rage among liberal Catholics, says Anna Arco. But there is a deep theological point to his finery

The torch of faith is blazing in China
Aid to the Church in Need's John Pontifex reports from China on how the Church is confounding oppression with a record number of conversions

Christ had risen, but joy only came later
Sister Teresa White FCJ follows her Lenten meditation on the Stations of the Cross with a reflection on the 'strangeness' of the Resurrection

The Irish abbot who shone in Europe
Paul Hurley SVD recalls a great Benedictine abbot who was born in Dublin 150 years ago next month

Can the Pope get Catholics to sing again?
Rome is encouraging a revival of church music. Webster Young explains how even those of us with modest abilities can join the musical revolution

Atonement didn't deserve any Oscars
By Charlie Hegarty

The West will live to regret its betrayal of the Serbs
An independent Kosovo offers a European foothold for jihadists, argues Hermann Kelly

The bitter struggle for the soul of Spain
As the nation goes to the polls on Sunday Fiona Flores Watson asks if the bishops' efforts to oust the Socialist government will unleash a wave of anti-clerical persecution

St Patrick: the first to join our regiment
The Irish Guards are famous for their bravery, says William Barlow, but they should also be celebrated for their devotion to their patron