I was a bit taken aback recently when a Church leader told me he had received a death threat. He had suggested that the world would be different now if reaction to the horror of the terrorism against the New York World Trade Centre had been based upon Christ-like love, not military might and violence, particularly against Iraq.

Whenever I pray at the tombs of St Peter and St Paul, my thoughts always go first to how little – if anything – must remain of them. I remember that Peter and Paul were human, with all their self confessed frailties, like me.

Then my thoughts always seem to turn to the magnificent Basilicas built over the Apostles’ tombs. These express the faith of so many. They have been the focus too of the faith of hundreds of millions of pilgrims over centuries.

I was a bit taken aback recently when a Church leader told me he had received a death threat. He had suggested that the world would be different now if reaction to the horror of the terrorism against the New York World Trade Centre had been based upon Christ-like love, not military might and violence, particularly against Iraq.