Of Sodor and Man, the religious deathbed impulses of two Communist leaders, Pope Francis and the family, and Francis Asbury

Up till that Jonathan Freedland interview I'd actually been rather enjoying this morning's Sunday on Radio 4...

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The programme began, pretty much inevitably, with the Panama Papers story.

This was dealt with though an interesting interview with someone the Sunday website called "Robert Paterson, Bishop of Soder and Man". 

Now, whoever writes the Sunday website blurb is notoriously prone to sloppiness (and keeps getting told off about it by someone on Twitter) and Bishop Robert's correct title is 'Bishop of Sodor and Man'.

Though I live very close to the best port in the UK for reaching the Isle of Man (Heysham), I've never registered the title 'Bishop of Sodor and Man' before. "Where's Sodor?" I wondered.

Googling around, Sodor was a Norwegian diocese formed in the 12th Century and 'Sodor' came from the Norse word Suðreyjar, meaning 'southern isles', in contrast to the 'northern isles' of Orkney and Shetland. And, from what I can gather, it all ties in which the long-lost Kingdom of Mann and the Isles:

I'm guessing Bishop Robert is more Man than Sodor these days though.

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Next came an interview about the persecution of Christians under communism (an unusual item for the BBC) - or that's at least how it was presented. 

Freelance writer Jonathan Luxmoore, author of God of the Gulag, was interviewed by Ed Stourton, and the story he told sounded complicated and intriguing. 

Oddly (and not so unusually for the BBC after all!) he didn't actually say much about the horrors inflicted on Christians by the communists. 

Still, among the interesting facts I learned from this was:

1. that Pope John Paul II's election was foreseen by the Polish secret police [a 1972 report from them said he'd be in with a very good chance of being elected when a conclave occurred].
2. that long-serving Hungarian communist ruler Janos Kadar (who I remember from my youth as the 'nice' one) asked to see a priest when he was dying.
3. that long-serving Czechoslovak communist ruler Gustav Husak (who I remember from my youth as the archetypal grim Brezhnevite hardliner) made his confession before he died.

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Next, being Sunday, it had to be.....Pope Francis. (The website headlines the edition The Pope and the Family). Bob Walker did a report based around Francis's belief in The need for better marriage preparation. The Pope got a very good press here.

And this was followed by an interview with Madeleine Teahan of the Catholic Herald (who the notoriously sloppy blurb-writer at Sunday webpage inevitably called 'Madelaine'), Joanna Moorhead of the Tablet and Guardian. and Bishop Peter Doyle.

All hailed Pope Francis, though Joanna (from Ed Stourton's liberal Catholic Tablet) sounded a note of disappointment that Francis hadn't gone far enough. 

What of the BBC's Ed Stourton here? Did he side with his fellow Tabletista against Madeleine from the more conservative Catholic Herald?

Madelaine..Madeleine Teahan

Well, I won't overstate it because he did ask Madeleine Teahan some neutral-sounding questions and stopped both her and Joanna Moorhead when their quarrel got too heated...

...but he also asked Joanna a helpful question, then labelled Madeleine as "traditionalist" without similarly labelling Joanna as "liberal" or "progressive", and at one point interrupted Madeleine to tell her to "let Joanna Moorhead finish", 

I know, I know. It's not much in the great 'BBC bias' scheme of things, but I've listened to Sunday for too long not to recognise a bias (however unconscious) being played out. 

You may all write to your MPs about it. Or have a cup of tea instead.

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From Joanna Moorhead of the Guardian to Jonathan Freedland of the Guardian. 

For this....please see the post below. 

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Next up came a featured marking the 200th anniversary of the death of Francis Asbury, who I'd never heard of. 

A former blacksmith's apprentice, he was dispatched from England's Black Country to America in 1771 by Methodist founder John Wesley. His circuit, we learned, was larger than the area of the UK, Ireland and Germany combined, and he travelled sometimes more than 6,000 mile a year (which doesn't sound that much today, as we've got cars!). His face was said to have been better known than George Washington and, with help from other preachers, he grew the Methodist Church in America from a few hundred to over 200,000 people. He annoyed John Wesley by making himself a bishop. He's regarded as the founder of the Sunday school in the U.S. He hid in a swamp during the War of Independence, fearing tarring-and-feathering for refusing to take an oath of loyalty to America. In Washington DC, there's a huge monument of him riding a horse - the only statue of someone riding a horse in Washington DC that isn't a statue of a general.

Sounds like an interesting man.

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Finally, it was onto that nice Justin Welby and his discovery of the identity of his biological father. Sunday discussed the story with Archbishop Justin's biographer and the psychologist who wrote Alcohol Nation: How to protect our children from today's drinking culture.

I will say no more about that, or anything else today. Good night and sleep tight.