While a student at St Norbert College in De Pere, Wisconsin, he entered the Norbertine order of priests and brothers, who ran the college. He left the order in 1942 and enlisted in the Army Air Corps, later gaining a degree at the University of Missouri. In 1946, he began his career in journalism with the Catholic Register chain of diocesan papers.In 1950, Hoyt and his first wife – whom he had met at the Catholic Register – were involved in a project to publish a national Catholic daily newspaper, The Sun Herald. He also contributed until last year to Commonweal, a New York-based journal edited, like the NCR, by Catholic lay people. A shy man, he never regarded himself as a great reporter and believed he was not as talented as others at going out and getting a good story.

But he prided himself on his skills as an editor, nuturing and bringing out the talents of his writers.The NCR has remained an influential voice in the Catholic world, most recently breaking the story of the extent of clerical sexual abuse long before the mainstream media – let alone other Catholic papers – devoted it any attention.Felix Corley. Like him or loathe him, you have to wonder what Tony Blair did to deserve this: John F Kennedy had Marilyn Monroe to sing "Happy Birthday" to him; the Prime Minister got Cilla Black – although not in person – on the BBC last night. Perhaps it was a stunt by the BBC to disprove the charge that it is biased in favour of the Government. After all, it does not take an encyclopaedic knowledge of the political affiliations of fading figures from the world of entertainment to know that Ms Black has been a member of that small club, the publicly avowed Conservatives. John F Kennedy had Marilyn Monroe to sing "Happy Birthday" to him; the Prime Minister got Cilla Black – although not in person – on the BBC last night. Many people in this country believe strongly and sincerely that smacking children is an essential reserve power of good discipline. We believe they are profoundly wrong: that smacking is not only unnecessary but unjustifiable in principle because it is the violence of the strong against the weak.

Many of them, indeed, will have done it – as the Prime Minister once admitted he had – and regretted it afterwards, without thinking of themselves, or people like them, as criminals.It might be expected that a liberal newspaper will take the view that the state has no business dictating to parents how they should bring up their children. In general, that is true, but in this case The Independent believes that the rights of children outweigh those of the parent.The Government is being cowardly in selling its intended ban on childminders smacking children, even where parents give permission, as merely bringing childminders into line with other childcare professionals, such as teachers, who are not allowed to hit their charges whatever parents say. Ministers can then say they have no intention of legislating against parental smacking.If they hope by this to earn a quiet life from the headline-writers and vitriol-pourers of the authoritarian press, they are mistaken. As far as the peddlers of reaction are concerned, the ban on childminders is part of the slippery slope.So it ought to be, and ministers might as well have the courage to challenge the prejudices of the middle ground. The many objections to an absolute ban do weaken if they are looked at closely. The law increasingly recognises the welfare of the child as the pre-eminent consideration, capable of outweighing parental wishes.

And the difficulties of enforcement are a diversion: the law still has a purpose in expressing values. Children have a right not to suffer violence from any quarter; parents have a responsibility of self-control. A society that truly valued children would inscribe it in its laws that smacking is unacceptable.. The size of the Labour rebellion over foundation hospitals later this week matters a great deal. Not because there is any prospect that the rebellion will block the legislation to devolve power within the National Health Service, but because it will be a measure of how out of touch with reality the Labour Party remains. We would only have believed Tony Blair's revolution in the party was complete if there were Labour MPs threatening to vote against the Government because the Bill does not go far enough.The truth is that Alan Milburn, the Secretary of State for Health, has been forced to make too many concessions to Gordon Brown, the Chancellor.Foundation hospitals – the term will soon become redundant because all hospitals are to be granted this status – will not be free to decide the pay and conditions of their staff, or to borrow. In both areas, they may have more flexibility than now, but they will still be constrained – in one case by a national agreement with trade unions, and in the other by the Treasury.Because of recent political history, neither Mr Milburn nor Mr Blair can say what they really believe.