Religion

Narthex, nave, chancel, apse: the church seems to be in good order. A queue stretches the length of the aisle. Outside, Sunday-night trams rumble past in the spring rain. Inside, Jesuits in black look on as frail grandmothers and parents with wriggling infants step forward and kneel before a tall glass-panelled wooden box. The queue moves slowly, and there is plenty of time to read the helpfu

Of all believers who might have debated Richard Dawkins on the ABC earlier this year, Cardinal George Pell was surely among the more unlikely. There is no doubting the depth of the Archbishop’s faith or sincerity, of course; there can be no doubt about Rupert Murdoch’s faith in freedom of the press, either. That the Cardinal’s public demeanour does not immediately bring to mind the auth