His Gothic style has made the cross one of this season’s most desirable accessories.Not that the Pope will be particularly pleased about that either. Earlier this year the Vatican criticised celebrities such as Catherine Zeta Jones and Naomi Campbell for abusing the significance of the cross. But the very fact that so many people choose to wear it, endorses the cross as a still potent symbol in these post-Christian times.Take David and Victoria Beckham. They spent £40,000 on a matching pair of white gold crucifixes encrusted with dozens of diamonds Yet the England captain is not one for traditional theology. He once said of his son Brooklyn: “I want him to be christened, but I don’t know what religion yet.”What the Vatican forgets is that religion does play a role, albeit an unconventional one, in people’s view of the world. It does have significance – if not the sort of significance the Vatican would prefer.

After all, a Catholic such as Donatella has probably got one at the back of her drawer, still in its christening gift box.. Last week Tobias Ellwood, who comes from Aldbury in Hertfordshire, flew to Bali to identify his brother Jon’s remains. He gave a poignant cry that summed up the horror of the new world in which we now all live. He said his family came from a tiny village in England where the biggest discussion focused on the ducks in the pond “Now we are confronted with bombs, terrorism and al-Qa’ida.

It simply doesn’t fit.”

Last week Tobias Ellwood, who comes from Aldbury in Hertfordshire, flew to Bali to identify his brother Jon’s remains. It simply doesn’t fit.”
The awful truth is that this is the new reality into which we must fit our lives. That is the underlying horror of the terror, and the war that has to be fought against it. In this new world, talk about ducks has been replaced by discussion of how to avoid being murdered by criminals whose aims and motivations few people can understand.I have wonderful memories of Kuta beach in Bali in 1972, which was before modern tourism began at all. There were no hotels, no bars, no shops to speak of – just a few tiny guesthouses built around courtyards, where the hosts brought you fruit and rice with delicate and disarming smiles.