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To some, he was John Paul the Great. To others, he was the Pope who brought down the Berlin Wall. To still others, he was a religious leader with a dark legacy of mismanagement in the face of an emerging child abuse crisis who clamped down on dissident voices within the Catholic Church while championing free speech outside it. The who reigned for more than 26 years, the second-longest pontificate in recorded history, continues to divide commentators inside and outside the Catholic fold.

And the decision by Pope Benedict XVI to beatify his predecessor is equally controversial. This Sunday, I'll join the estimated one million pilgrims who have travelled to Rome for the ceremony of beatification, for a Sunday Sequence special. I'll be joined by some of the world's best-known commentators on church and politics to examine the legacy of the man soon to be named The Blessed John Paul II. Is this ceremony an exercise in unseemly haste or a fitting tribute to a man whose heroic faith inspired believers across the world?

The ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳'s coverage of the Beatification of John Paul II begins at 7.10 am on ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Radio 4. Edward Stourton and his guests will debate the life and legacy of the soon-to-be-Blessed Pope, and I'll report live from St Peter's Square, with guests including Then, if you switch to ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Radio Ulster at 8.30 am, we'll bring you compreshensive coverage of the ceremony itself, along with reaction from commentators including the , of Watergate fame, the , and , the theology professor stripped of his right to teach as a Catholic theologian -- on the orders of Pope John Paul II -- because he challenged long-held Catholic moral doctrines.

Extras
John Paul II beatification:
Protests mount over

"Is God male? The Old Testament uses the masculine pronoun to describe him. Jesus refers to the divinity as Father. So does that make the creator a masculine force -- and mean that men are more godlike than women? These are questions that theologians like Sister Elizabeth A. Johnson, a Fordham University professor, have been mulling for years. At 69, Sister Johnson is among the pioneers of a generation of feminist scholars who examine how cultural biases among biblical scribes may have led to women's diminished roles in Western religious traditions, especially the Roman Catholic Church."

With those words, the contribution of the woman widely regarded as America's premier Catholic theologian, Elizabeth Johnson's books have been studied in both Catholic and Protestant theological schools for decades. While a graduate student in the United States, her 1992 book She Who Is: The Mystery of God in Feminist Theological Discourse was a basic text in my own theological education. But now, America's Catholic bishops have decided that Elizabeth Johnson's ideas are beyond the pale.

, the doctrine committe of the US Conference of Bishops has ruled -- or at least it reads l;ike a "ruling" -- that Johnson's 2007 book Quest For The Living God undermines the Faith and does not accord with essential Catholic teaching.

What is perhaps remarkable is that the US Bishops' doctrine committee felt able to come to that decision without even talking to Elizabeth Johnson. Sister Johnson knew nothing of their inquiry into her book until they published their findings. Professor Johnson is (not surprisingly) refusing requests for interview, but she has made this statement:

"First, I would have been glad to enter into conversation to clarify critical points, but was never invited to do so. This book was discussed and finally assessed by the Committee before I knew any discussion had taken place. Second, one result of this absence of dialogue is that in several key instances this statement radically misinterprets what I think, and what I in fact wrote. The conclusions thus drawn paint an incorrectpicture of the fundamental line of thought the book develops. A conversation, which I still hope to have, would have very likely avoided these misrepresentations." (Read more .)

Other defenders of Elizabeth Johnson would use less diplomatic language: some regard the US Bishops' comments as an academic injustice, a form of intellectual bullying, and an attempt to fire a shot across the bows of other theologicans who may decide to think beyond the bounds of a narrowly-defined orthodoxy.

Extras

Read the response of the Catholic Theological Society of America's .

Church of England leaders have suggested that we all pray or Prince William and Kate Middleton. They've even offered a suitable prayer, which includes a petition to help them keep their wedding vows and remain together for the rest of their lives. Keeping wedding vows and remaining together forever are, of course, rather sensitive themes to bring up with respect to any British royal couple, as tHere's the text of the Church of England prayer:

God of all grace,
friend and companion,
look in favour on William and Catherine
and all who are made one in marriage.
In your love deepen their love
and strengthen their wills
to keep the promises they will make,
that they may continue
in life-long faithfulness to each other; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

The Templeton Prize is awarded for work that makes 'exceptional contributions to affirming life's spiritual dimension'. So why has the Astronomer Royal and one of the world's most distinguished scientists? After all, Lord Rees is a non-believer (variously described as an "atheist" and an "agnostic"), albeit one who says he is "

It seems clear that there is space for the spiritual in Martin Rees's scientific worldview, and he has been critical of some leading new atheists whose approach to religion he finds both counter-productive and, at times, fundamentalist.

Richard Dawkins is by the scientist's approach to the faith-science "debate" that he has described Rees and a "fervent believer in belief".

Other leading atheists have ecnouraged scientists to disassociate themselves from the Templeton Foundation, which they regard as a lobby group for religion within contemporary science.

The Templeton Foundation's of the merits of this year's prize-winner notes that Martin Rees's work offers "profound insights on the cosmos" and has "provoked vital questions that speak to humanity's highest hopes and worst fears" which "are reshaping crucial philosophical and theological considerations that strike at the core of life, fostering the spiritual progress that the Templeton Prize has long sought to recognize."

Extras

on the topic "Is this our final century?"

Listen to Martin Rees deliver the 2010 ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Reith Lectures.

The funeral Mass of Constable Ronan Kerr (pictured) took place at 12:00pm today in the Church of the Immaculate Conception in the parish of Beragh, County Tyrone, in the Archdiocese of Armagh. Father Arthur McAnerney, Parish Priest of Beragh, was the main celebrant at the Mass; Father John Skinnader CSSp, a family friend, preached the homily; and Cardinal Seán Brady, Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland, presided at the Mass. Cardinal Brady was accompanied in the Sanctuary of the church by the three other main Christian Church leaders of Ireland: Archbishop Alan Harper, Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh; Rev Norman Hamilton, Moderator of the Presbyterian Church; and Rev Paul Kingston, President of the Methodist Church.

Below the fold, you can read remarks by Cardinal Seán Brady and the homily by Fr John Skinnader. Cardinal Brady told the congregation that people of good will should firmly and clearly oppose violence in out society: "Parents and grandparents, I beg you, plead with your children and with your grandchildren, not to get involved with violence ... Violence has nothing, absolutely nothing, to offer except misery and destruction. Choose life, I say, choose goodness, choose peace. That is what God is asking of you. That is what the people of all traditions have been saying to all of us, loud and clear, since the moment of Ronan's tragic death on Saturday last ... In God's name stop - and stop now!"

Read the rest of this entry

The leader of Northern Ireland's largest Protestant church will be attending the funeral of murdered Catholic police officer Ronan Kerr. The Presbyterian moderator, Dr Norman Hamilton (pictured), had previously told the Sunday Sequence programme that his personal policy when attending Catholic masses was to leave the service before the Act of Communion (or Eucharist) since this part of the Catholic mass raises theological issues for Reformed Christians. But, in a change with that policy, I've just had it confirmed that he has decided to remain in the church for the entirely of the Requiem Mass for Ronan Kerr -- a decision that will be seen by many as a symbolically significant gesture of solidarity with the Kerr family.

First Minister Peter Robinson will also be at the funeral -- the first catholic funeral service he has attended . He "I'm very happy to go and pay my respects ... I think it's right that as First Minister I should do that and I have no apologies - I will have my critics, but it is a personal decision I have taken."

Requiem Mass for Ronan Kerr will be held at the Church of the Immaculate Conception at midday on Wednesday.

You can listen again (here) to part one of The Good Book, which tells the story of the origins of the , arguably the single most influential text in the history of the English language.

My guests in the first programme include some of the leading experts on the history of the King James Bible: the renaissance scholar Gordon Campbell, author of , the theologian Alister E. McGrath, author of , and historian Diarmaid MacCulloch, whose books include the best-selling I also talk to the Reverend David McIlveen about why his congregation is a "King James Only" church, and the cultural journalist Judith Elliott gives me a personal tour of which could fairly be described as the birthplace of the King James Bible.

In the second and final part of The Good Book, which you can hear next Sunday at 1.30 p.m., I look at the cultural impact of the King James Bible, with contributions from language scholars and experts on music, cinema and the arts. (Listen here.)

A Christian pastor, writing on my blog, has sent his best wishes to atheists on this "their special day". He teasingly references Psalm 14, verse 1: 'The fool says in his heart, "There is no God."' I'll make a couple of observations about this.

First, whoever wrote this psalm was certainly not refering to anything like the modern notion of atheism. Atheism is a comparative new-comer to intellectual history. I'll leave you to speculate about what Psalm 14:1 might actually have referred to, but we can be reasonably sure that it wasn't aimed at some ancient world equivalent of Richard Dawkins.

Second, the deployment of this verse on my blog had me thinking of St Anselm, the 11th century Italian theologian who became archbishop of Canterbury, and his famous In Anselm's Proslogion, he reasons that Psalm 14: 1 makes sense because the existence of God is implied in the idea of God. If Anselm is right, it would be impossible to deny the existence of God without implicitly affirming God's existence. Most philosophers now accept that Anselm's argument is fatally flawed, though some modern philosophers, have tried to mend the argument. You can read one of Plantinga's attempts at intellectual repair , but few of his professional colleagues regard this as any more successful than Anselm's attempts.

If re-reading Anselm isn't how you wish to spend this April Fool's Day, you might prefer to add a comment to this thread noting your favourite April Fool's Day Hoax. Here's the Daily Telepgraph's suggested Was it of Ken Bruce? Or from the religion think tank Ekklesia. Or on the New Humanist Blog.