To describe the situation in Syria as an unholy mess would be an understatement. It is tragic, but it is also very frustrating. It cannot be compared to what seemed like the relative simplicities of the Egyptian revolution or even the Libyan one, with pro-democracy activists on one side, a ruthless tyrant on the other. Certainly President Bashar al-Assad fits that description, and certainly what motivated ­popular protest was the desire to see the back of him at last.

But this is a complex conflict where religious and ethnic factors loom large. It is plain enough what they are against, but far from clear what opponents of the Assad regime are fighting for.

They are united neither in their aims nor in their strategy, and virtually every other Middle Eastern power has a finger somewhere in this pie. Are they Sunni moderates, secularists, members of the Muslim Brotherhood or even with al-Qaeda? Are they pawns of the West or Israel, or their sworn enemies?

Some are Christian, though Mr Assad has a reputation for protecting minority rights; some want to drive the Christians out. Some are Shia, though that is the section of Islam he belongs to. Is Mr Assad in Russia’s pocket, or Iran’s?

What this confusion demonstrates is the impracticability of any simple intervention from outside, say by providing air power as in Libya or by American pressure on the military as in Egypt. It is not even easy to prescribe how and where humanitarian aid should be delivered, except of course to the crowded refugee camps over Syria’s borders where it needs to flow abundantly.

The innocent victims are at present the citizens of Aleppo, Syria’s second city. The rebels held important districts until the Syrian army launched overwhelming force against them. As ever, women and children are particularly at risk.

Aleppo has a significant Christian population, and no doubt Pope Benedict had them in mind when he called for ...

Archbishop Gerhard Ludwig Müller, the new prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), has briefly laid out his stall in an interview with L’Osservatore Romano. He stated that the Catholic Church risked being distracted from its main task by having to deal with the problem of “ideological clashes”.

This is how he regarded both the Lefebvrists on the one hand and the female Religious in the United States on the other, where their major body, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, is in dispute with both the CDF and the American bishops. The CDF has also taken a tough stance towards the breakaway Society of St Pius X.

The “main task” Archbishop Müller referred to was the proclam­ation of the Gospel. Recovering the insight expressed in the language of a “hierarchy of truths” – that some things are more important than others – would increase the chances of success in that task. In the Church of England, for instance, the impression of warring factions fighting over female ordination and the Church’s attitude to homosexuality is widely recognised as having harmed the Church’s image and mission. Both are secondary to the main task, proclaiming the Gospel.

Without compromising a single detail of the Church’s ­magisterial teaching, Archbishop Müller could quickly improve the climate inside the Catholic Church, which, as he said, is marked by a certain despondency. He could broaden the degree of latitude allowed to Catholics, theologians in ­particular but also priests and bishops, to debate some of the vexed questions which arise at the interface of faith and modern society.

These are mostly issues which occur lower down the hierarchy of truths, including issues of sex and gender – about which the gospels have very little to say – but also concerning interfaith relations and the questions thrown up by the cultural ...

London’s Olympic Games are designed to be a wonderful showpiece for the world's best athletes, an opportunity to gain massive international goodwill for Britain, and a chance to redevelop one of the most rundown areas of the urban industrial landscape.
The first objective seems on course – indeed, there is a fair chance these will be the most successful Games ever – and that boosts the second ...

To the world at large, the Catholic Church looks like one huge organisation in which power – and hence responsibility – flows down from the top. This perception of a unified monolithic structure is why the decision of the trustees of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portsmouth to try to avoid legal liability for the alleged child abuse committed by one of its clergy is bound to look like cynical, or even dishonest, ...

News that the population of England and Wales is now growing faster than at any time since the ­eighteenth century has been seized on by some as an argument against immigration. Immigration is certainly a factor in population growth. Most recent arrivals to Britain are of child-bearing age, hence for a while they will add to the population disproportionately. This puts a different gloss on the frequent complaint of ...

As the international athletes arrive and Britain limbers up to deal with the onset of the 2012 Olympic Games, churches are likewise making for their starting blocks. Services and chaplaincy facilities have been prepared, pastoral care for both participants and spectators is arranged, and a complex ecumenical project, under the name More Than Gold, is ready to swing into action. The project’s subtext – “helping ...

The almost universal adoption of the concept of human rights has undoubtedly made the world a better place. But there are exceptions. Human-rights theory, with its strong stress on the autonomy of the individual, sometimes fails to give sufficient weight to religious beliefs and practices which are largely expressed in a family, social or collective context. Thus a German court has ruled that the circumcision of male ...

Age itself is not curable, though many of the diseases that once shortened the lifespan now are. The result is an increasing population of elderly people, increasingly infirm, who need, to some degree, to be looked after. The traditional solution – care in the extended  family – is often inappropriate, and the older people are, the more likely it is that they will have dementia.

At the same ...

Everyone knows cheating at cards is wrong, even if the finer points of high-stakes poker are complex. Similarly the detailed functioning of the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor) is something of a mystery, but clearly some players have been cheating at it. Nor is the analogy with a card game a bad one. The activities of investment banks have been likened to a casino, in which a lot of people can make a lot of money ...

Pope Benedict has appointed a man very like himself to the key position in the Vatican he occupied from 1981 to 2005, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF). Archbishop Gerhard Ludwig Müller, Bishop of Regensburg in Bavaria since 2002, is a prolific theologian and champion of conservative orthodoxy. Yet similarities with his close friend the Pope exist alongside significant differences ...