Meanwhile: Lionel Ritchie at the Vatican

The Amazon Synod may end on October 27, but for those who can’t get enough of Vatican events concerning the region, a Christmas concert will take place on Saturday December 14 with the theme “We make a network for the Amazon”. The star performers will be Susan Boyle, the Scottish singer and practising Catholic who shot to fame on Britain’s Got Talent. Joining her are the Welsh singer Bonnie Tyler, best known for Total Eclipse of the Heart, and a group of Italian musicians including the tenor Fabio Armiliato. Perhaps the best-known performer is Lionel Richie. The Wall Street Journal’s Vatican correspondent, Francis X Rocca, remarked: “One looks forward to Mr Richie performing Easy Like Sunday Morning at the Vatican.”

***

Are ghosts a distraction from Christianity? That’s the contention of Anglican vicar Nick Bromfield, who has fought a successful campaign against ‘‘ghost tours’’ in his village. Mr Blomfield said he felt his church, in Prestbury, Gloucestershire, was being “exploited” by the tours, which “have no part in a place of Christian worship and they don’t belong in a Christian churchyard”. The tour organiser has accuse the vicar of having a “vendetta” against his business.