When Christopher Hitchens launched his campaign against religion a few years back, he immediately lost a great many of his new right-wing friends. Now, Michael Moore, an old foe of Hitchens, has risked alienating leftist atheists by confirming that he is a practising Roman Catholic. The news comes as Moore's new documentary, Capitalism: A Love Story, emerges in US cinemas.

Moore pulled off an impressive rabbit punch when being interviewed by conservative broadcaster Sean Hannity. After being attacked for being an exemplar of left-wing secularism, Moore demanded to know when his interviewer had last been to church. Hannity was stumped.