Fr Alexander Lucie-Smith

The next Catholic Archbishop of Westminster, Richard Moth, will be installed in his cathedral on February 14. Bishop Moth, formerly of Arundel and Brighton, is seen as a ‘safe pair of hands’. But why didn’t the job go to a more charismatic figure, such as Archbishop John Wilson of Southwark? What does this low-key appointment tell us about Pope Leo’s vision for the Church? Fr Alexander Lucie-Smith, a moral theologian and priest of Arundel and Brighton – and friend of Holy Smoke, joins Damian Thompson for a frank and wide-ranging discussion about the problems facing the Catholic Church in England and Wales. Produced by Patrick Gibbons.

The Sicilian Mafia is one of the most murderously amoral organisations on the planet – yet babyishly sentimental when it comes to Italian peasant Catholicism. And, like other branches of Italian organised crime, questions exist over whether they have allies in the Vatican, some of whose senior officials are as keen on money-laundering as the Mafia, only not so good at covering their traces.  The relationship between the hitmen and the hierarchy casts an exotic shadow over a new series of thrillers by Alexander Lucie-Smith, the first of which, The Chemist of Catania, has just been published. To quote A.N. Wilson, Lucie-Smith's plots are fast and his characters unforgettable. 'Menace, suspense, lust, love and fear all enliven his narrative.

Cardinal Arthur Roche, the Pope's famously ambitious liturgy chief, has stepped up his campaign against the Traditional Latin Mass, which he's been trying to suppress ever since he was Bishop of Leeds 15 years ago. This week he persuaded Francis to back his ruling that the ancient Mass can only be celebrated in parish churches with his permission – thus taking the decision out of the hands of the world's bishops, many of whom are furious at being undermined in this way.  Traditionalists are in despair; they aren't optimistic, to put it mildly, that 'Uncle Arthur' will grant permission and they fear there is worse to come. In this week's Holy Smoke I talk to moral theologian and parish priest Fr Alexander Lucie-Smith about the mounting chaos in the Vatican.