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2 months ago | 
thecatholicherald.com | Serenhedd James
As the March issue of the Catholic Herald went to press it was not clear when Pope Francis would be leaving the Gemelli Hospital in Rome, or indeed in what condition; it was a sobering lesson for anyone who has relied on his robustness over the last few years, and his tendency to bounce back from the ailments with which he has been beset. The Pope remains very poorly indeed, and the bizarre updates detailing papal breakfasts and intimate medical procedures have been unsettling, to say the least.
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2 months ago | 
telegraph.co.uk | Serenhedd James
In June 2001 William Hague led the Conservative Party to failure in a general election performance that had only been eclipsed by John Major’s in 1997, which saw New Labour catapulted into power under Tony Blair and Hague become Leader of the Opposition. After hubris, nemesis; after nemesis, apotheosis. Today the Lord Hague of Richmond, as he now is, took his place as the 160th Chancellor of the University of Oxford.
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Dec 5, 2024 | 
catholicherald.co.uk | Serenhedd James
Because the Hunchback of Notre-Dame was discovered on Quasimodo Sunday – hence his name – people often think that Victor Hugo’s novel Notre-Dame de Paris starts at Easter. Not so; it opens with scenes of carousing and bell-ringing in medieval Paris on the feast of the Epiphany in 1482. The commotion had been caused, as Hugo puts it, by anticipation of “the twin ceremony of Twelfth Night and the Feast of Fools, which had fallen on the same day since time immemorial”.
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Nov 27, 2024 | 
telegraph.co.uk | Serenhedd James
The sheperds’ dial, Corpus Christi Professor Helen Moore, the President of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, proclaims on her college website that “Corpus is a close-knit yet outward-looking community where talented people from all backgrounds are encouraged to flourish”. It seems strange, then, that such a cosy community should also be a crucible for vigilantism, which in January reportedly drove Alexander Rogers, a 20-year-old student, to suicide. The inquest into Mr Rogers’s death, conducted...
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Nov 17, 2024 | 
catholicherald.co.uk | Serenhedd James
‘Have you got the map?” I did not have the map. Why would I have had the map, when I was doing the driving?
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Nov 9, 2024 | 
telegraph.co.uk | Serenhedd James
Credit: David Williams A desperately upsetting open secret that has been whispered around Oxford since January has finally come into the light. Alexander Rogers, a 20-year-old materials science student at Corpus Christi College, took his own life after an allegation made against him by another student appears to have led him to believe that he had no other choice, or reason to live, when his peers – some of whom he regarded as close friends – chose to ostracise him. The coroner has concluded...
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Nov 7, 2024 | 
catholicherald.co.uk | Serenhedd James
Fed up with the fickle English weather, I decided I wanted beauty and beer so booked a last-minute weekend trip to Tallinn. In addition to the sunshine, it also meant that I could visit a friend who is presently an officer serving with the NATO taskforce in Estonia. The British Army demurely calls Operation Cabrit its “Forward Land Forces” in the Baltic States. More straightforwardly, His Majesty’s Armed Forces are there to deter anyone else from being there instead.
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Nov 5, 2024 | 
telegraph.co.uk | Serenhedd James
The Conservative party has a new leader, and the Americans have gone to the polls; in Oxford, meanwhile, either Elish Angiolini, Dominic Grieve, William Hague, Peter Mandelson, or Jan Royall will soon emerge as Chancellor-elect and the University’s next titular head. The absence of any wildcards suggests an impatience on the part of the electorate for the unsatisfactory smorgasbord that was initially presented. The first-round voting blocs crystallised early on.
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Oct 31, 2024 | 
catholicherald.co.uk | Serenhedd James
Much has happened since the Catholic Herald last landed on doormats. I travelled to New York in early October and did not expect to return to London as Editor-in-Chief, but here I stand. I am grateful for the many kind messages that have arrived since the news broke. It is very much business as usual at 8 Cromwell Place.
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Oct 22, 2024 | 
catholicherald.co.uk | Serenhedd James
Educating in Faith: A History of the English Catholic Public SchoolMark Cleary, Sacristy Press, 256 pages, £19.99The cover of Mark Cleary’s Educating in Faith is something of a parable: “a projected but unrealised plan” for Downside Abbey, near Bath, with monastery and school either side of a fine church – two lungs, if you like, of the same monastic body. A differently splendid version of Downside was built, but that did not meet expectations either.
