PHOTO: ALAMY, JEREMY SUTTON-HIBBERT

‘No lyric has ever stopped a tank’ but ‘poetry holds attention for a space.’ 14

COLUMNS

Christopher Howse’s Notebook ‘Remembrance Sunday and Christmas are popular excuses for knitting toppers’ /7

Liz Dodd ‘This South African hit had the kids leaping up and down in their sleeping bags’ / 9

Maggie Fergusson ‘What isn’t sufficiently acknowledged is the radiance of Catholicism’ / 15

REGULARS Word from the Cloisters 18 Puzzles 18 Letters 20 The Living Spirit 21 Extra Time 38 Glimpses of Eden 38

Next issue: Saturday, 2 September 2023

CONTENTS SUMMER DOUBLE ISSUE // 19/26 AUGUST 2023 // VOL. 277 NO. 9516

FEATURES

4 / Suddenly there’s belief in the future of the Church

World Youth Day has changed the narrative about Catholicism’s appeal to

young people in Europe and beyond / BY FILIPE AVILLEZ

6 / Now what?

Pope Francis is pulling every available lever to ensure that his reforms

are irreversible / BY CHRISTOPHER LAMB

8 / True confessions Has the conversion of St Augustine, one of the great turning points

in Christianity, been misunderstood? / BY KATE COOPER

10 / Italian lessons A poet recalls the summer holiday when she struggled for freedom from

a mother she both loved and needed / BY KATHRYN SIMMONDS

12 / The divided rainbow In the second story of a holiday that changed the writer’s understanding of her world, a Robben Island trip-that-never-was is remembered / BY CHINE MCDONALD

14 / Writing in the sand Seamus Heaney suggests that we turn to poetry for a glimpse of a transcendent

equilibrium in the face of war’s brutality / BY GERARD KI LROY

16 / Relax, Mr Titchmarsh Rewilding is not about giving up gardening, it’s about becoming more deeply

involved in the life of our gardens / BY ISABEL LLOYD

NEWS

31 / The Church in the World / News briefing 32 / Former nun files civil case against Canadian cardinal

34 / View from Rome 35 / News from Britain and Ireland / News briefing

36 / Catholic police officers at risk

COVER: FERIAS DE VERAO BY BEATRIZ MILHAZES

ARTS / PAGE 22 Theatre The best of the Edinburgh Festival MARK LAWSON Exhibition Beatriz Milhazes JOANNA MOORHEAD Television Sanditon LUCY LETHBRIDGE Radio BFFs: A Life Built on Friendship D.J. TAYLOR

BOOKS / PAGE 26

Ian Cooper Germany in the World: A Global History 1500–2000 DAVID BLACKBOURN Theo Hobson Church Beyond Walls: Creative Church in Public Spaces MARTIN POOLE A.N. Wilson Crime round-up Margaret Hebblethwaite Mary: Bearer of Life CHRISTOPHER COCKSWORTH Mary, Mother of God: In Search of the Woman Who Changed History GRZEGORZ GÓRNY AND JANUSZ ROSIKON

For more features, news, analysis and comment, visit www.thetablet.co.uk

19/26 AUGUST 2023 | THE TABLET | 3