Less noted, perhaps, is the retrenchment of Roman Catholicism in France from the aggressive political role it played as recently as the Dreyfus affair toward the inward-turning N.

NEWYORKER: I, Nephi

The Liberal leader Tony Abbott, a former seminarian whose Catholicism is an important part of his political make-up, recently signalled a new openness to the idea of a conscience vote should he become prime minister.

BBC: The shifting politics of same-sex marriage in Australia

She perhaps relies too heavily on John Whyte's important (but flawed) work on Catholicism in Ireland, north and south, and perhaps lacks the rather brutal political equipment needed to work out the murky deals that resulted in the Good Friday Agreement, of which she thoroughly approves.

ECONOMIST: Irish history