Sunday shopping attacked

Catholics were urged last week by the Pope to safeguard the "sacred nature" of Sundays.
John Paul was speaking off the cuff after his Sunday Angelus message to a noisy gathering in St Peter's Square protesting at Rome's new civic ruling ordering shops to open on the Sabbath for tourists. The protesters, most of them shop assistants refusing to work on Sundays, were waving copies of the Pope's
encyclical on the world of work, Centesimus annus.
The Pope publicly pledged his support for their cause reminding all faithful of the "religious and family nature of this day of rest".
Britain's Sunday Trading Bill was voted through its final stages in the Commons this week, though an amendment to exclude Christmas Day and Easter Day from the scope of the bill, tabled by Catholic MP David Alton, was carried.