I HAVE a CD of the Italian composer Respighi that I bought in a charity shop for just over a pound. It includes “The pines of Rome”, the second section of which “The pines near a catacomb” is one of the most sublime passages in all music.

In a few short musical phrases it evokes the intensity, glory and poignancy of our common Christian heritage and identity – an identity that we share with the first martyrs in the Colosseum and with Christians everywhere in all ages.

This is especially true of other traditional Christian nations, including, very definitely, Russia whose Christian roots go very deep.

It’s also what led me to oppose Brexit: our past was Christian and European and – if we are to have one – so will be our future.

In a word, spirituality should determine how we treat other nations as well as other people.

Tony Kelly, Crook