PHOTO: MARC BRENNER

Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot: one of three 1950s classics back on the London stage 19

COLUMN

Christopher Howse’s Notebook ‘I put my suit jacket over my nightshirt, as though I’d joined the Taliban …’ / 9

REGULARS Word from the Cloisters 14 Puzzles 14 Letters 16 The Living Spirit 17

CONTENTS 19 0CT0BER 2024 // VOL. 278 NO. 9574

FEATURES

4 / The listening cardinal In giving a red hat to Timothy Radcliffe, the former head of the Dominicans,

Pope Francis has scored a bullseye / BY MAGGIE FERGUSSON

7 / The legacy of a lad from Lancs Sixty years ago, a working-class English Catholic addressing the Second Vatican Council opened the door to today’s synodal process / BY PAT JONES

8 / Starmer’s shaky start The difficulties the new government has got into are less to do with its decisions than with its poor political instincts and lack of judgement / BY JULIA LANGDON

10 / Between a rock and a hard place In the first of a series of reflections by US Catholics on the coming election, an academic is poised between two deeply uninspiring options / BY RACHELLE WALKER

12 / Barrett’s law

The US Supreme Court judge widely dismissed as a Catholic zealot is showing a willingness to break ranks with other conservatives / BY MICHAEL MCGOUGH

13 / The conversion of Scotland Alex Salmond, who died last week, conducted a long, laborious campaign to convince Scottish Catholics to support independence / BY IAN DUNN

NEWS

24 / The Church in the World / News briefing 25 / Pope demands respect for UN peacekeeping mission

27 / View from the Synod 28 / News from Britain and Ireland / News briefing 29 / Government under fire over religious freedom failure

COVER: LORENZO RUMORI

ARTS / PAGE 18 Exhibition Scent and the Art of the Pre-Raphaelites SUSAN GRAY Theatre Waiting for Godot; Look Back in Anger; Roots MARK LAWSON Cinema The Crime is Mine ISABELLE GREY Music Monteverdi’s 1610 Vespers ALEXANDRA COGHLAN

BOOKS / PAGE 21

Francis Watson Lower than the Angels: A History of Sex and Christianity DIARMAID MACCULLOCH Sue Gaisford The Virago Book of Friendship ED. RACHEL COOKE Brian Morton The Elements of Marie Curie DAVA SOBEL

John Quin The Strangers EKOW ESHUN

Chris Nancollas Speed reading on health and happiness

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19 OCTOBER 2024 | THE TABLET | 3