I'll be fairly brief (for once):
This morning's Sunday on Radio 4 was its usual left-leaning, liberal, Catholic-obsessed self.
Today we got:
(1) An Irish atheist sociologist on how social change in Ireland is making the country more liberal and shrinking the influence of the Catholic Church.
(2) A bit on sin where the interviewee said that 'sloth' should be understood to mean 'overworking' (!).
(3) A complaint from an Anglican bishop that his Church is "abandoning the poor" for "a preferential option for the rich" and his call for the Church to become more socially active.
(4) A piece on Sikh feminists, donning the turban for the sake of equality and against patriarchy.
(5) An interview with the (Catholic) head of Stonewall to mark LGBT History Month.
(6) A report from Mansfield on Syrian refugees there - all Muslims by the sound of their names. One, Abdul, is grateful for being let in but feels isolated, especially because :
...he's away from the community here in Mansfield. It doesn't feel...there are no halal shops very close to where he lives, so...the Muslim community, the Syrian community, there aren't many here in Mansfield, so that increased the feeling of isolation.
(7) A interview with a Catholic priest and an Anglican writer about celibacy, prompted by Ed Stourton's Panorama on John Paul II's relationship with women. (He didn't mention his own role in that, just as William Crawley didn't mention his involvement last week. How very discreet of them!)
P.S. Ed's John Paul II story is the lead in The Tablet this week:
