PHOTO: ALAMY/AP, YASUYOSHI CHIBA

Catholic faithful wait for Pope Francis to celebrate Mass in Dili, Timor-Leste 29

COLUMNS

Liz Dodd ‘The nuns and bruvs of the UK and Ireland were taking social media by storm’ / 5

Kamara Katama Atkinson ‘David had become resigned to the idea he would end up either dead or in prison’ / 15

REGULARS Letters 18 The Living Spirit 19 Word from the Cloisters 21 Puzzles 21

CONTENTS 14 SEPTEMBER 2024 // VOL. 278 NO. 9569

FEATURES

4 / Out of shame, into the light Contemporary Irish fiction has become explosively popular, and its authors are

feeding, in part, on the decline of the Catholic Church / BY MARY KENNY

6 / The disruptor Pope One of Canada’s leading Catholic writers portrays Pope Francis as both

a disruptor and a healer and unifier / BY MICHAEL W. HIGGINS

8 / On the side of the Tiber Though he loved the Church and taught many of its leaders, Gerald O’Collins SJ

had a complex relationship with the Holy See / BY MICHAEL WALSH

EDUCATION

10 / It’s time to judge fairly Parents broadly support the government’s scrapping of single-word Ofsted

judgements for state schools / BY CARINA MURPHY

12 / Enlightened attitudes When the French Revolution broke out in 1789, the English convent at Liège was already a major centre for progressive female education / BY CORMAC BEGADON

14 / Growing closer to Jesus The central purpose of a Catholic school is Christian formation. A teacher and a lay chaplain consider how to realise this / BY HELEN PEPPER AND GABRIELLE FOSTER

NEWS

28 / The Church in the World / News briefing 29 / Pope condemns child abuse on arrival in Dili

30 / Postcard from Budapest

31 / View from Rome 32 / News from Britain and Ireland / News briefing

33 / Buildings still death traps, says priest

COVER: ALAMY, ALESSIA GIULIANI

ARTS / PAGE 22 Music Benjamin Britten’s Curlew River MARY COLWELL Theatre Shifters MARK LAWSON Cinema Lee ISABELLE GREY Television The Perfect Couple LUCY LETHBRIDGE

BOOKS / PAGE 25

John Cottingham Cosmic Connections: Poetry in the Age of Disenchantment CHARLES TAYLOR Oliver Letwin Autocracy Inc.: The Dictators Who Want to Run the Wo r l d ANNE APPLEBAUM Guy Stagg Mr Geography TIM PARKS

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

14 SEPTEMBER 2024 | THE TABLET | 3