At the CPAC convention last week Congressman Ron Paul won the straw poll in a presidential preference contest Paul was a candidate for president last time round but he failed tow in a single primary although the popularity of his views with some young people created a veneer of enthusiasm that ea

Look at the statements and homilies made by some of the Irish bishops yesterday following their two-day meeting with Pope Benedict XVI and one thing will be perfectly obvious they just don t understand the problem There is plenty there about sin and repentance God s loving and healing mercy and

There were 1 16 billion baptised Catholics in the world in 2008 up 1 7 19m on the previous year and making up 17 4 of the world s population nbsp according to the latest Annuario Pontificio nbsp In the same period the world s population went from 6 6bn to 6 7bn The Catholic share of tha

Cambridge MA At first I was secretly pleased this past week to come across the Newsweek article entitled ldquo Harvard rsquo s Crisis of Faith Can a secular university embrace religion without sacrificing its soul rdquo The article by Lisa Miller religion editor proposed that Harvard rsquo

nbsp nbsp Mes chers amis nbsp Last night I saw an extraordinary new movie called Lourdes directed by the Austrian filmmaker Jessica Hausner and starring a luminous Sylvie Testud as a more-or-less believing pilgrim who suffers from mulitiple sclerosis nbsp Christine has come to the

Robert Mickens the Tablet s prolific correspondent kindly sent us this special report from the Vatican on the much talked about meeting between the pope and the Irish bishops prompted by that church s widening sex abuse scandal ROBERT MICKENS Special to America ROME ndash Act I of a Vatican-o