“The Taliban have for some time been the greatest heroes for atheism. The Taliban make Richard Dawkins contribution to promotion of godlessness positively weak and meek.”

(Dick Gross, Sidney Morning Herald)

“The free exercise of religion only concerns religion within one’s own life; no person is free to exercise control over another’s life in the name of religion.”

(Megan Fraley, on what the US Constitution means by freedom of religion, The Tribune)

(New Statesman)

Archbishop Vincent Nichols, leader of Catholics in England and Wales, has high hopes for the Pope’s visit to the UK next month. He even thinks it can stop the secularisation of society by demonstrating that religious faith “is a gift rather than a problem”.

The Church of England is continuing to press the BBC to appoint a “religion editor” to ensure that the Corporation’s religious output is what it calls “a trusted guide for people of faith and those without”.

Terry Sanderson on the emergence of the truth that the state, the police and the Church colluded in the cover up of Catholic priest Fr. Chesney’s involvement in the Claudy bombing of 1972

In the week of the GCSE results frenzy, we are told once more of an increase in the number of students taking GCSE in Religious Studies.

In a further move towards becoming a secular democracy, rather than an Islamic republic, a Bangladesh court has ruled that people cannot be forced to wear skull caps, veils or other religious clothing in workplaces, schools and colleges.

Sparks are expected to fly at the first event of the Protest the Pope campaign, a debate on Wednesday at Conway Hall with the resolution: “The papal visit should not be a state visit”.

Back in 1982, Pope John Paul II also visited Britain. At the time, the-then president of the NSS, Barbara Smoker, wrote this letter to The Times (March 23 1982). It might easily have been written this week:

As the Pope’s visit draws close, journalists are being misled by Catholic PR by being told that mass attendance in England is on the on the increase and has had a significant boost.

Seven out of ten of the 92 million in the predominantly Roman Catholic country of the Philippines would defy the Church and elect a president who supports birth control. This is the result of an opinion poll by the Manila-based Social Weather Stations.

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