13th March 2015
With some surprise, I have just woken up to the fact that we are celebrating two years since the election of Pope Francis, the first Pope from the New World. It is a cliché, but it really does seem just the other day that I – along with everyone else – was waiting for the […]
5th March 2015
Pope Francis has caught the global imagination. That is one of the reasons for his global impact. There are few world leaders who speak to humanity, across territorial and cultural boundaries, in the same way. It provides the Pope with a global pulpit that enables him to reach out to people of all faiths, creeds […]
15th December 2014
The UK’s fourteen Overseas Territories add a particular dimension to British foreign policy and our world view. I often write in these pages about the global Holy See network. The United Kingdom has long had, and still retains, a global role, of which our fourteen Overseas Territories are both one result and an ongoing manifestation. […]
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11th September 2014
The bishops in the US and health care reform. The leading role played by the Catholic Church in tackling corruption in the Philippines. Caritas Internationalis responding in a practical way to the rise in suicides amongst Indian farmers. Catholic radio and censorship in South Sudan. The response of the Eastern Church Patriarchs to ISIL. Using […]
24th April 2014
It has been a busy few days at the Vatican. Easter week, with its public ceremonies and celebrations, is just behind us. This coming weekend will see the canonisation of two Popes, John XXIII and John Paul II. Pope Francis will preside, and the Pope Emeritus, Benedict XVI, could also be present. Along with many […]
26th February 2014
If anyone doubts the global nature of the Roman Catholic Church, they had only to attend the Consistory on 22 and 23 February, when Pope Francis created 19 new Cardinals from the senior bishops around the world. The 16 ‘working’ Cardinals in Pope Francis’s first list now take their part amongst the 120 or so […]
19th February 2014
Baroness Warsi is the first ever British Minister for Faith in a British government. She is also Senior Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. In both roles, at home and abroad, and with the strong support of the Prime Minister, she has made religious freedom a personal priority: promoting and protecting people’s […]
4th June 2013
Can we be the generation to eliminate extreme poverty from the earth? This is the challenge set by the Report of the High-Level Panel of Eminent Persons on the Post-2015 Development Agenda, co-chaired at the request of the UN Secretary General by the Presidents of Liberia and Indonesia, and the Prime Minister of the United […]
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11th April 2012 USA
Like a lot of people interested in US politics and economics, I’ve been thinking quite a bit recently about the results of the last US census and the excellent analyses that demographers, political pundits and others have done on them. One thing that really strikes me is the projections of the US’s population out to […]