CONTENTS 12 NOVEMBER 2011 COLUMNS


5 DAVID BLAIR ‘Far-sighted members of the regime know that Young Persia cannot be kept in chains’


11 CHRISTOPHER HOWSE’S PRESSWATCH ‘God-hating audiences spend money to hear jokes against him’


14 LISTEN TO THE WORD 15 PARISH PRACTICE 16 NOTEBOOK 17 LETTERS 18 THE LIVING SPIRIT 19 PUZZLES


CHRISTMAS BOOKS


20 ANDREW LYCETT Charles Dickens: a life Claire Tomalin


JOHN McEWEN Great Works: 50 paintings explored Tom Lubbock


SUZI FEAY The Sealed Letter Emma Donoghue


LUCY POPESCU Swimming Home Deborah Levy


ARTS


27 FEATURE Robert Thicknesse Moscow’s reopened Bolshoi Theatre


TELEVISION John Morrish Rev


CINEMA Francine Stock Tabloid


THEATRE Mark Lawson Collaborators


12 A relationship in need of repair Seán Donlon


A former Irish diplomat asserts that now, as Ireland prepares to close its embassy to the Holy See, is the time to keep communicating


31 THE CHURCH IN THE WORLD


Publisher owned by German Church accused of selling pornography 34 LETTER FROM ROME


35 NEWS FROM BRITAIN AND IRELAND School abuse revelations shock parents


10 Old lies and glory Jonathan Tulloch While it is right to honour the fallen this Sunday, argues one writer, the Church must continue to speak out against war


4 COVER STORY


Sacred and sublime Laura Gascoigne The artist Leonardo da Vinci had an extraordinary skill in expressing that which is beyond expression – the divine, and eternity


6 ‘Demonstrably unacceptable’ Christopher Lamb The Carlile report into sexual abuse at Ealing Abbey’s St Benedict’s School also raises questions over the way other schools are run


6 In search of Abbot Soper Catherine Pepinster The former head of Ealing, wanted for questioning over the abuse, has vanished, and theories circulating in Rome verge on the wild


8 Bring on the sin bin John Mulholland Cheating is rife in football, but fair play has to be restored to the game if children are to learn that morality applies on and off pitch


FEATURES


COVER: CHRIST AS SALVATOR MUNDI BY LEONARDO DA VINCI (1452-1519). OIL ON PANEL. PRIVATE COLLECTION © 2011 SALVATOR MUNDI LLC. PHOTOGRAPH: TIM NIGHSWANDER/IMAGING4ART


12 November 2011 | THE TABLET | 3


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