Sleeping Dogs

No-one who, as a Catholic child, learned their catechism could be surprised by Benedict XVI's straightforward restatement of the Catholic belief on the status of the Catholic church.

Then why has he spoken? First to end any hesitations in Catholic minds on the extent of inter-faith advance engendered since Vatican II. Second, so that other Catholic stances that have been eroded by inter-faith dialogue should be clear cut once again. Third to rally the Faithful.

The assertion that the personal is political has sown the wind, and reaped some of the least attractive intrusions into our lives by the state; equally, the state is now vulnerable to an individual moral digging in of heels, and a reassertion of religious leadership that threatens the secular state.

Harold MacMillan's advice that morality should be left to the bishops went unheeded . The Bishop of Rome is gathering his forces to reclaim the ground lost to the state on morality in social and individual relations.