(Family Publications, £12.50) This book was inspired by a lecture series marking the 40th anniversary of Humanae Vitae at St Patrick’s, Soho – a church in the heart of an area famous for sexual licence. In the introduction the parish priest, Fr Alexander Sherbrooke, says he has found among his parishioners “a great yearning for a clear understanding of the truth and meaning of human sexuality”. The 10 essays that follow attempt to provide this.
They range over some of the most contested questions in modern culture: contraception, Aids, homosexuality and Church authority. Authors include Bishop Alan Hopes, an auxiliary in Westminster, Fr Stephen Langridge and blogger extraordinaire Fr Tim Finigan. If you want to understand what John Paul II’s visionary theology of the body means for Catholics living in Britain today, this is the ideal place to start. Luke Coppen