Meanwhile: Why Ann Widdecombe wasn't posted to Rome

In 2010, the former Tory minister (and now Catholic Herald columnist) Ann Widdecombe was offered a new job: David Cameron asked her to be ambassador to the Holy See. The first problem, Widdecombe told the Spectator in an interview last week, was that she had signed a contract to appear on Strictly Come Dancing. The Vatican said it was happy to wait – “so she prayed to God to send her a sign and he sent her a detached retina”. As a result, Widdecombe “had to be within three hours of Moorfields Eye Hospital at all times”.

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Russian military parades often feature priests blessing weapons. but that could change, under proposed reforms being considered by the Russian Orthodox Church. Bishop Savva Tutunov of the Moscow Patriarchate has said it makes sense to bless soldiers, and to bless a soldier’s weapon because it is linked to that individual. But weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons, “should not be sanctified”. According to Religion News Service, another cleric, Fr Vsevolod Chaplain, favours blessing large weapons because they “protect Russia from enslavement by the West”.