COLUMNS

7 CHRISTOPHER JAMISON

‘If consumerism is the native culture, church leaders condemn it at their peril’

1 7 SARA MAITLAND

‘We need to work on Christmastide joy as much as we do on Friday fasting’

1 9 CHRISTOPHER HOWSE’S

PRESSWATCH ‘The prince’s sickness gave an unintended angle to the Queen’s Christmas message’

2 0 PARISH PRACTICE 2 1 NOTEBOOK 2 2 L ETTERS 2 3 THE L I V I NG S P I R I T 2 4 PUZZLES

BOOKS

2 5 R I CHARD OWEN

Il Duce and His Women: Mussolini’s rise to power Roberto Olla

AYLA L E P I NE Downside Abbey: an architectural history Dom Aidan Bellenger (ed.)

LYNN ROBERTS Lazarus Is Dead Richard Beard

ARTS

2 8 F EATURE

Mark Lawson Theatrical hits of 2011

ROCK AND POP Brian Morton Emeli Sandé

C I NEMA Francine Stock The Artist

GALLERIES Polly Chiapetta Selected exhibitions for 2012

CONTENTS

3 1 DECEMBER 2 0 1 1

F EATURES

4 Conclave contenders Robert Mickens

As talk in Rome turns to a potential successor to Pope Benedict, our correspondent offers an insider’s guide to those considered papabile 6 Before the iceberg Sarah Mac Donald

Selections from an extraordinary archive of photographs taken on board RMS Titanic by a young Jesuit priest have been republished

■ COVER STORY: THE YEAR AHEAD

8 The Second Vatican Council: 50 years on John Wilkins

How much of the radicalism of the event survives today? 9 The economy William Keegan

The spectre of the euro crisis is set to haunt UK growth in 2012 1 0 Her Majesty’s Diamond Jubilee Stephen Bates

How a strong personal faith has infused the Queen’s 60-year reign 1 2 Charles Dickens D.J. Taylor

The bicentennial of his birth is a chance to celebrate the great writer

1 2 The Olympic Games Vladimir Felzmann

Sport reveals the intensity of humanity’s desire for transcendence 1 3 Search for a new Chief Rabbi Stephen Pollard

With Lord Sacks stepping down in 2013, the hunt begins for his successor 1 4 Sistine Chapel ceiling Laura Gascoigne

The 500th anniversary of the creation of Michelangelo’s masterpiece 1 5 The environment Mary Colwell

Creation must be protected for its own sake, as well as ours 1 6 After Berlusconi Ivor Roberts

In the midst of Italy’s chaos there is hope for the future

1 8 Unconscionable and unjustifiable Tina Beattie

With the notion of a “just war” becoming increasingly untenable, is it time to embrace the more pacifist ethos of Gaudium et Spes?

3 2 THE CHURCH I N THE WORLD

Islamists wreak Christmas carnage 3 6 NEWS FROM BRITAIN AND I RELAND

Bishops warn of polarised society

COVER ILLUSTRATION: NERUUU

31 December 2011 | THE TABLET | 3