PHOTO: MANUEL HARLAN

The Spymonkey comedy troupe ventures into the underworld in The Frogs 20

COLUMNS

Shelagh Fogarty ‘Broadcasting since 7 October has been the most difficult challenge I have faced’ / 6

Patrick Hudson ‘Everybody likes evensong, which can’t be said for all ecumenical liturgies’ /9

REGULARS Word from the Cloisters 15 Puzzles 15 Letters 16 The Living Spirit 17

CONTENTS 10 FEBRUARY 2024 // VOL. 278 NO. 9539

FEATURES

4 / Putin’s holy war

The patriarch and the president insist that the invasion of Ukraine two years ago was to defend Russia from the West’s depraved values / BY MARTIN SIXSMITH

7 / Mother Courage

Pope Francis is canonising an Argentinian woman who kept the tradition of Ignatian spirituality alive during the suppression of the Jesuit order / BY AUSTEN IVEREIGH

8 / ‘I thought I’d give the priesthood a whirl’ In the fifth of a series on episcopal life, the Archbishop of Liverpool tells how he left engineering to find his calling / BY MALCOLM MCMAHON

10 / The power of parochial thinking The parish system is at the heart of the Church of England and is designed to serve the entire community, but it is at risk of being destroyed / BY ALISON MILBANK

EDUCATION

12 / Dynamite in the classroom The National Inspection Framework for England and Wales is now moving Catholic Social Teaching to the centre of the life of the Church’s schools / BY RAYMOND FRIEL

14 / Back on track

The new head of Ampleforth College explains that the wall which now separates it from the Benedictine abbey marks a new beginning / BY PETER STANFORD

NEWS

24 / The Church in the World / News briefing 25 / New Chinese bishops ordained under 2018 agreement

27 / View from Paris 28 / News from Britain and Ireland / News briefing 29 / Catholic leaders urge Hunt to address poverty in budget

COVER: ALAMY/AP/SPUTNIK/KREMLIN POOL, ALEXEI NIKOLSKY

ARTS / PAGE 18 Exhibition Paolozzi at 100 JOANNA MOORHEAD Radio The Gatekeepers D.J. TAYLOR Theatre The Frogs MARK LAWSON Television G’Wed LUCY LETHBRIDGE

BOOKS / PAGE 21

Lavinia Byrne Lenten reading Lucy Wooding Forbidden Desire in Early Modern Europe: Male-Male Sexual Relations, 1400–1750 NOEL MALCOLM Julia Langdon The Wild Men: The Remarkable Story of Britain’s First Labour Government DAVID TORRANCE Suzi Feay Glorious Exploits FERDIA LENNON

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

10 FEBRUARY 2024 | THE TABLET | 3