British Museum exhibit on St Thomas Becket gives sympathetic look at past

Letter from London Jonathan Luxmoore In a gallery of The British Museum, light plays on an array of medieval crosses, reliquaries and manuscripts, as an audiovisual display reenacts one of English history’s most notorious crimes. At the centre, three stained-glass windows, painstakingly transferred from Canterbury Cathedral, convey images from the fabled afterlife of St Thomas…

Vatican Roundup

Pope Francis saddened by attack which killed nuns in South Sudan Pope Francis has sent his condolences after a violent attack on a group of Catholic religious sisters and others in South Sudan left five dead last week. “His Holiness Pope Francis was deeply saddened to learn of the brutal attack on a group of…

In brief

Faith leaders concerned over online censorship of religious speech YouTube’s blocking of a theologian’s talk on the Christian view of sex as a “content violation” raises serious concerns that “religious speech is being censored online”, San Francisco’s archbishop and Focus on the Family’s president said in a Wall Street Journal op-ed they co-wrote. “Today’s sexual…

Family News

Young woman takes off on round-the-world record bid Pilot Zara Rutherford, 19, has taken off at the start of a three-month bid to become the youngest woman to fly solo round the world. She departed from Kortrijk-Wevelgem Airport in western Belgium in her Shark ultralight, the world’s fastest microlight aircraft. “Growing up, I loved aviation…

Fair play to the rebel bishops

Dear Editor, – I cannot be alone in finding the shadow boxing between Church and State over the issue of First Holy Communion and Confirmation amusing. The bishops are acting responsibly within their competence and are also acting with due regard for the common good. It is unprecedented for a democratic government to try to…