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PHOTO: HCPT

A young trio from the 2,500 Scots on the HCPT 2024 Easter pilgrimage to Lourdes 28

COLUMN

Christopher Howse’s Notebook ‘The name of this programme seems to echo a wartime shampoo advertisement’ / 6

CONTENTS 13 APRIL 2024 // VOL. 278 NO. 9548

FEATURES

4 / The Spirit of the Synod The synodal process of discernment is a sort of death so that we might live, in

preparation for a new springtime in the Church / BY TIMOTHY RADCLIFFE

8 / Dignity unbounded A new Vatican document defends the rights and dignity of transgender people

while rejecting ‘gender theory’ / BYAUSTEN IVEREIGH

10 / The lost girls

Ten years ago, Boko Haram kidnapped 276 schoolgirls. Today the survivors are

trying to rebuild their lives / BY ADAOBI TRICIA NWAUBANI

12 / The Tablet Interview: Tobias Jones The creator of experimental communities says that he is now more comfortable

talking about the religious faith that underpinned them / BY PETER STANFORD

BOOKS / PAGE 17

Nicholas King God’s Ghostwriters: Enslaved Christians and the Making of the Bible CANDIDA MOSS Noonie Minogue Pox Romana: The Plague That Shook the Roman World COLIN ELLIOTT Felicity Hudson The Anxious Generation JONATHAN HAIDT Lindsay Duguid Caledonian Road ANDREW O’HAGAN

REGULARS Letters 14 The Living Spirit 15 Word from the Cloisters 16 Puzzles 16 Ethical Kitchen 30 Glimpses of Eden30

NEWS

23 / The Church in the World / News briefing

24 / DDF affirms ‘infinite’ human dignity

26 / View from Rome 27 / News from Britain and Ireland / News briefing

29 / Lang quit ‘of his own accord’

ARTS / PAGE 20 Exhibition The Last Caravaggio JOANNA MOORHEAD Cinema Immaculate; The First Omen ISABELLE GREY Theatre Power of Sail MARK LAWSON Television Ripley LUCY LETHBRIDGE

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

13 APRIL 2024 | THE TABLET | 3