Newsline 23 November 2012

Newsline 23 November 2012

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News, Blogs & Opinion

If you can’t prove you’re a Christian, get off the school bus

News | Thu, 22nd Nov 2012

Flintshire County Council is proposing to restrict subsidised school transport to religious schools to those pupils who can prove that they are of the religion that the school espouses. Before they can get on the school bus, pupils will have to provide evidence that they are true Catholics/Anglicans/Sikhs etc. etc. such as with a baptismal certificate.

No baptism, no free bus.

Cllr Chris Bithell, cabinet member for education, has described the proposals as "fair". He told the local Leader newspaper: "In this current financial climate we have to look at means to make savings. If parents choose a school other than their local school then they have to pay and that's the principle we will be using in this case.

"We will provide free school transport for children of a particular faith, if they can demonstrate they are of that faith. But in other cases, where parents are using that school for reasons other than faith, then they will have to pay transport fees.

"There has been a bit of a loophole in the past. This is certainly fair because we are applying the same principle in all cases."

The affected schools include St Richard Gwyn Catholic High School in Flint, St Mary's Catholic Primary School in Flint and St David's RC Primary School in Mold.

Simon Hughes, headteacher at St David's, has questioned how pupils will prove their faith. "As a Catholic school we are not just here to provide education for Catholics; we open our doors to all faiths," he said. "It's a dangerous step to go down in terms of proving your faith – how do you prove your faith? Not everyone has a baptism certificate and baptism does not prove the child regularly goes to church."

It is not known how many non-religious pupils attend faith schools, but in 2009, of year seven admissions to St Richard Gwyn Catholic High School, more than half came from non-Catholic primary schools. The council estimates it can save £100,000.

But Terry Sanderson, president of the National Secular Society, said: "This proposal is the worst of all worlds. It is bad enough that the council provides free transport to denominational schools in the first place, but it is scandalous that there will now be a religion test. There will be children who live next door to each other who might be going to the same school – one can take the bus and the other, who hasn't been baptised into that particular faith, will have to make other arrangements. It is the absolute epitome of discrimination, and should be illegal."

Mr Sanderson said the Council should urgently rethink its policy and scrap free transport to "faith schools" altogether.

"However the council organises this, it will mean discrimination for someone. Other councils around the country have already stopped this business of subsidising religion and discriminating against those who don't have it. Flintshire should follow their example," he said.

A 12-week public consultation period begins on January 7 before the plans are put to the cabinet for final approval on April 23. If given the go-ahead the changes are expected to come into effect by next September and will be introduced in a phased approach, as new pupils enrol.

Find out more:

Faith Schools: School Transport Briefing Paper

Supreme Court rules on compensation to Catholic child abuse victims

News | Wed, 21st Nov 2012

The Supreme Court has today ruled on a dispute between two Catholic organisations about who is responsible for paying compensation to over 170 victims of alleged physical and sexual abuse at a Yorkshire children's home.

The case involves the Catholic diocese of Middlesbrough and the Catholic De La Salle Brothers order, in respect of alleged systematic abuse of children going back more than fifty years at the St William's children's care home and school at Market Weighton. It was ruled that the De La Salle Brothers were "vicariously" (financially) liable for wrongdoing of the members of the Order, even though they are not employees, despite the Order's attempts to evade responsibility for this reason.

The case has huge implications, potentially beyond the UK, but particularly for the Catholic Church, where many of those responsible for child abuse – such as "brothers" are not, technically, employees. This decision is likely to finally resolve another recent similar case involving the Catholic diocese of Portsmouth, where the appeal court ruled on vicarious liability in the same direction as the Supreme Court has done today.

St William's took emotionally and behaviourally disturbed boys, aged 10 to 16, referred by councils largely from Yorkshire and the North East. The former headmaster James Carragher has twice been convicted of a series of indecent assaults, buggery and taking photographs of young boys. In 2004 he was sentenced to 14 years in prison, having already served a seven-year sentence imposed in 1993. The institution was closed down in 1992.

Lawyers for the victims have accused the Catholic church of delaying, or attempting to avoid, compensation payments.

Keith Porteous Wood, executive director of the National Secular Society, said: "This case lays bare the shameless and continuing evasion by the hierarchy of the Catholic Church of paying compensation for the horrendous abuse for which those acting in its name have been responsible, and compounds the abuse suffered by victims. This case has taken so long to resolve that some victims have died, relieving the Church of paying them compensation. Even for those remaining, it goes nowhere near repairing the lives ruined by this brutal abuse carried out on an industrial scale by clerics on youngsters supposedly in their care."

"I am told by a Yorkshire solicitor acting for many of these victims that in every case the Church has fought, and continues to fight, tooth and nail, to evade every penny of compensation. This case is essentially a battle between two departments of the Catholic Church. The Church has demonstrated by its actions that it does not care one iota for the victims, nor for being seen to have acted with compassion, far less decently. Otherwise it would have resolved the case many years ago by paying the compensation centrally from the Church's vast wealth and deciding in Rome how the cost was to be apportioned.

"The Church's failure, clearly with the complicity — if not the direct instructions — of Rome, to minimise compensation (as in this case), and also to protect clerical abusers from the criminal courts, as demonstrated most clearly in Ireland, demonstrates that the only way that victims can be better protected in future is by tightening up the criminal law.

"I recommend that Parliament brings forward legislation to make it a criminal offence not to disclose to the police all credible allegations of child abuse and to preserve and furnish them with all available evidence."

Tower Hamlets council approves £2 million funding to faith groups

News | Fri, 23rd Nov 2012

The mayor of one of Britain's poorest boroughs is providing £2 million of funding to religious groups to help refurbish places of worship.

The mayor of Tower Hamlets, Lutfur Rahman (right), has approved funding to offer assistance to faith communities to repair, adapt and improve buildings in which faith-based activities occur.

The option of offering grants exclusively to religious groups was preferred over an alternative option to make the fund available to all community buildings.

An equalities analysis justified the scheme under the Council's aim to promote good relations between different faith groups and non-faith groups. The council says the delivery of the scheme will be discussed with the Interfaith Forum to ensure that it brings benefits to the wider and non-religious community. One East End political blogger has predicted that the bulk of the money will go to small mosques and community centres that occupy former shops across the borough.

Due to drastic cuts across the entire public sector, Tower Hamlets needs to find £75m of savings by 2014. The funding for the Community Faith Buildings Support Scheme has been identified by the Mayor "from reserves".

Tower Hamlets is one of London's most impoverished areas and has been identified as the worst area in the UK for child poverty. The area has a dire shortage of affordable housing with over 22,000 on the waiting list and considerable over-crowding issues. Tower Hamlets recently announced significant cuts to it's community and advice services.

Earlier this month the mayor approved the sale of a Henry Moore sculpture in an attempt to claw back money lost in budget cuts. Mayor Lutfur Rahman said: "It is with considerable regret that I make this decision but I have a duty to ensure residents do not suffer the brunt of the horrendous cuts being imposed on us." The artwork was originally sold to the council by Henry Moore at a below-market price in the 1960s with the understanding that it would be placed in east London.

Mr Rahman is no stranger to controversy. He is reported to have close links to the extremist Islamic Forum of Europe (IFE). Following his election as Mayor in 2010, The Telegraph journalist Andrew Gilligan quoted a senior Labour Party figure saying that Rahman's personal control of the Tower Hamlets billion pound budget makes Tower Hamlets an "Islamic republic."

One local resident angered by the Faith Buildings Support Scheme told the NSS: "I totally object to this. This money should be spent on schools and other essential services that benefit the whole community. This feels more like a redistribution of public money, ahead of an election, to a particular section of society, aimed at currying favour and securing votes."

Stephen Evans, campaigns manager at the National Secular Society, said: "Government cuts are hitting the people of Tower Hamlets especially hard. In such an impoverished area that faces so many challenges, one has to wonder if Mr Rahman has got his priorities straight. If money is going spare it should be made available to all local community groups equally, but the local authority certainly should not be prioritising the funding of religious activities and practices in this way."

Church of England’s establishment is well past its sell-by date

Opinion | Wed, 21st Nov 2012

By Terry Sanderson, president, National Secular Society

We've argued for a long time that the establishment of the Church of England as an arm of the state is unsustainable in a modern, diverse society. Last night's vote at the General Synod to reject women bishops simply reinforces that opinion.

Although as secularists we would defend any church's right to make its own rules (so long as they are within the law and don't affect people outside its ambit), in the case of the Church of England it is different.

This is a church "by law established", a status that brings with it many privileges that are denied to other denominations and religions.

There is no denying that the Anglican Church has had a profound influence on the history and development of this nation. But then, so did steam trains and we did not hesitate to get rid of them when they had outlived their usefulness.

The world has changed profoundly since the Church of England was created, and it is time for us to accept that change is needed. If we don't expect our railway carriage to be pulled by Stephenson's Rocket any more or go to America in a Zeppelin, then we shouldn't imagine that there are not better ways to order our constitution to take account of shifting demographics and progress in science and political thought.

Britain has become a society of many religions, but mainly a nation of no religion. This secularising process has brought into being laws that would never have been even considered if the Church was still in charge. Abortion, homosexuality, contraception, suicide, cremation – all were illegal for centuries on the orders of the Church. All have been legalised by a society that has been gradually rejecting religious dogma for over a century now.

Chief among these progressive laws is the Equality Act, which makes every citizen — religious and non-religious, male or female, black or white, straight or gay, disabled or able-bodied — entitled to the same rights. The Church of England has just set itself against this.

As an Established Church, its legislation has to be approved by our elected parliament. Usually this is just a formality, but with this decision there might be resistance in parliament, which has ruled through its own legislation that women must be treated equally and barriers must not be placed in their way.

If the Church of England wishes to continue with its privileged position in relation to the state, it must change its ways. But there are stronger reasons for its disestablishment – the first being that its supporters have voted with their feet and abandoned it in droves. It is now a tiny denomination, but still claims to speak for us all. With this decision it shows that it speaks for only a small group of conservatives who are out of step with the direction of society.

This morning on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme, the Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, defended establishment because "the Chief Rabbi says it keeps religion at the forefront of the nation".

Well, the Chief Rabbi represents even fewer people than the Archbishop of York.

The Church of England has now shown itself to be an irrelevance, a nuisance and an embarrassment. It is well past its sell-by date and its establishment even more so.

Church and state need to be set free

Opinion | Thu, 22nd Nov 2012

Simon Barrow makes the case for disestablishment from a Christian perspective

If there is one thing that might pleasantly surprise the Church of England in the throes of its embarrassment over failing to approve women bishops, it is surely that so many people who never darken its doorsteps still seem to care rather passionately about what it does – albeit in a generally less than sympathetic way.

Given that fewer than a million people now attend weekly services of the 'national church' in a country of 50 million, one might wonder quite why that is. Judging from the volumes of media coverage and online comment the goings on at this week's General Synod have generated, popular nerves have definitely been touched. But of what kind and to what effect?

The gut issue for many seems to be basic fairness. To many people – religious or otherwise – it seems incredible that an institution of the modern era which is established under the Crown, has unelected members in parliament, receives financial privileges from the treasury and is involved in running schools and welfare programmes should still regard it as acceptable to discriminate against half the human race.

Of course, most in the Church of England do not want to do this. More than 74% of Synod members voted for women bishops. Some 80% of churchgoers approve the change. 42 out of 44 dioceses have also balloted in favour. What has happened is that the Church has allowed itself to be held to ransom by an obdurate minority, some of whom barely regard those with whom they disagree as properly Christian, and most of whom will only be satisfied by provisions which enable them to operate 'no go' areas for women and LGBT people within the institution – discriminatory arrangements which reduce others to a second-class citizenship or leadership.

How the Church of England moves forward from this impasse is a fascinating and difficult question in its own right. But increasingly people within and beyond its walls are asking another one. Why should these internal wrangles and problems be superimposed on society at large? For on the terms of the current settlement between church and state they most surely are being.

So, for example, the Church of England (along with other religious bodies) enjoys a range of exemptions from the Equality Act 2010 which impact the employment rights of a significant number of people. The Church has also used its reserved places in the House of Lords to try to stop others, including Quakers and Liberal Jewish synagogues, from conducting civil partnerships. It wants to stop same-sex marriage, not for its own congregants but for everyone. It also runs taxpayer-funded schools that are allowed by law to select pupils and staff on religious grounds, whether parents and children in the wider community like it or not.

There is a massive dose of 'having your cake and eating it' in all this. It increasingly looks like privilege without responsibility. This is the reason why questions are now being revived concerning the Church of England's established status; about whether male leaders of one denomination from one religion in one country should be in the UK legislature as of right; and about whether exemptions from anti-discrimination legislation should automatically be granted to a body which styles itself a national institution, but still wishes to behave like a private boys club.

In the past these questions have been difficult to raise, at least in any way that might promote actual change. But with Synod's abject and humiliating failure to approve women bishops, two changes have become visible. First, the fund of public goodwill towards "the dear old Church of England" seems to have been further eroded. Second, the party political division over these issues appears to be breaking down. Once the C of E was dubbed "the Tory Party at prayer". Now the Tories are led by someone who is prepared to chide the Church for excluding women and to disagree with it over civil same-sex marriage, just as Tony Blair was prepared to go against the Catholic Church hierarchy over the issue of discrimination against lesbian and gay couples by its adoption agencies. Voices right, left and centre are now uttering the word 'disestablishment'. The political ground is shifting, and over the past week it has taken another discernable lurch.

It is important to realise, and to stress, that the issue here is not about restricting religious freedom. On the contrary, freeing the church from the state and vice versa would enable both sets of institutions to address their respective problems and challenges without having to get bogged down in the incommensurate agendas of the other. It is not the job of the government to resolve theological differences within religious bodies, and it is not the job of churches or faith groups to require others to be governed by rules based on the beliefs of one minority.

So much though I want to see women (and indeed gay) bishops in the Church, I do not think the government should force it to have them. But by the same token, there is no reason in a plural society why the Church should be able to stop the government from licensing marriages and partnerships for same-sex couples. The Church should remain free to bless or not bless those relationships, but not to prevent others from forming and celebrating them. Freedom is a two-way street.

The case I am putting forward, and which has almost certainly been strengthened by shenanigans in the General Synod this week, is not simply a secular one, either. The argument for the independence of church and state is one that has been strongly articulated within the theological traditions of nonconformity for many years. It argues that non-compulsion is the essence of true religion, collusion or subjugation a dangerous threat to it.

Along with the emancipatory message of Jesus, who was himself executed by an unholy alliance of state and religion for his subversion, this spirit of mutual freedom is one the Church of England most definitely needs to embrace as it addresses both its own problems and its changing place within the fabric of an increasingly diverse society.

Simon Barrow is co-director of the religion and society thinktank Ekklesia. He has worked in the past as an advisor within the Church of England. This article first appeared on openDemocracy website and is reproduced here with kind permission

Another Irish abortion scandal emerges

News | Thu, 22nd Nov 2012

The Irish Government has paid substantial compensation to a woman who was forced to travel abroad for an abortion, despite being terminally ill with cancer.

Michelle Harte, of Co Wexford, sued for violation of her human rights last year. In 2010, after she became unintentionally pregnant while suffering from a malignant melanoma, doctors at Cork University Hospital advised her to terminate her pregnancy because of the risk to her health. Her obstetrician was willing to perform a termination but was "hamstrung" by legal issues. The matter was referred to the hospital's "ad hoc" ethics committee. which decided against authorising an abortion on the basis that her life was not under "immediate threat".

Ms Harte has since died from her cancer.

Because of delays caused by her not having a passport and the time it took for the hospital to reach its decision, her condition deteriorated and she was not able to receive cancer treatment because of her pregnancy. Eventually she travelled, with great difficulty, to Britain for the abortion.

Ms Harte's lawyers then sued the State on her behalf for infringing her rights under the ABC case, in which the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Ireland had breached the human rights of a woman with cancer who had to travel abroad to get an abortion.

Young Irish want an inclusive, secular state

News | Mon, 19th Nov 2012

A consultation among young people in Ireland initiated by the President, Michael D. Higgins (right), shows strong support for making the country a secular state.

The 17–24 year olds who were consulted issued a "Take Charge of Change" declaration in which they asked for major reforms of the education system to include a focus on learning Irish, more investment in special education, and extra classes in IT and new technologies.

Equal marriage and adoption rights for gay and transgender couples and the creation of a secular state are also among the rights being demanded. But the declaration says that political reform is needed to bring about the necessary changes.

"Our vision for Ireland is a secular, inclusive, multilingual, confident State with excellent and universally accessible education, health and social support systems; an Ireland of which we can be proud on the global stage," it says. "We have to engage in a process of systematic political reform.

"Our vision includes economic prosperity, an enterprise culture and the opportunity for education and employment for all, a place where young people reach their potential, have a solid future and a valued voice, free from forced emigration and the burden of national debt."

The report comes after Mr Higgins invited young people last May to take part in a national discussion on how Ireland should develop. Regional workshops were held in Dublin, Cork, Monaghan and Galway last September. It resulted in a report called 'Being Young and Irish' (pdf), which was launched by the president over the weekend.

NSS welcomes court decision on Christian man’s Facebook comments

News | Fri, 16th Nov 2012

The National Secular Society has welcomed a High Court ruling that a Christian man who made anti-gay marriage comments on his private Facebook page should not have been demoted by his housing association employer.

Adrian Smith was demoted from his managerial position, had a 40% salary cut and was given a final written warning by his employer, Trafford Housing Trust (THT), after he posted a comment on the social networking site.

Mr Smith had written that gay weddings in churches were "an equality too far". The comment was posted outside working hours and was not visible to the general public. Read the full story here.

Commenting on the case, Terry Sanderson, President of the National Secular Society, said: "This is the right decision and we welcome it. Mr Smith is entitled to his private opinions on any topic. Although we may not agree with those opinions he must surely have a right to share them on his private Facebook page.

"It is vitally important that everyone has the freedom to say what they think and for those who don't agree to express their own opinions in turn. What Mr Smith said about same-sex marriage was measured and could not be considered as inciting hatred. His opinion is shared by a substantial number of people in this country. He should not have been punished for saying what he did."

Mr Sanderson said that permitting people the right to express opinions that you may profoundly disagree with is the very basis of democracy.

"If Mr Smith could be punished for saying what he thought, we could all fall into the same black hole at some time in our working lives. Free exchange of opinions in the only way," he said.

Acceptance of gay rights is an indication that USA is secularising

Opinion | Mon, 19th Nov 2012

By Adrian Tippetts

This weekend the US media pundits have been asking to what extent LGBT people swung the vote for Obama in the 2012 elections. It's a difficult call to say any one particular social group might be responsible for stopping the Republicans, whose party platform seemed all about protecting the privileges of mainly white, older, religious, affluent voters. Three-quarters of LGBT people rejected Romney but as the election demographics show — Obama won 71 percent of the Hispanic vote, 55 percent of women, 93 percent of blacks — there are millions of offended parties.

The demographics of diversity and declining religiosity will force the GOP to embrace inclusiveness or die. Pandering to a white evangelical base won't work because the USA is becoming ethnically diverse at a fast pace: collectively, ethnic, religious and sexual minorities make a third of the population and growing; of the 0 to 18 age group, whites make up less than 50 percent.

Some Republicans think a winning strategy is to be more inclusive of ethnic minorities, while remaining opposed to LGBT equality; after all, opponents of marriage equality went 74–25 for Romney. Frank Schubert, the public affairs mastermind who devised several successful anti-marriage referenda, including Proposition 8, sees the failure of the marriage amendment propositions as a mere setback in blue states. But a simple look at the statistics for acceptance of LGBT equality over the last decade, by social group and by region, should tell him that the tide is turning. The younger generation is overwhelmingly accepting. This year, polls show that there are more supporters than opponents of marriage equality among black and Hispanic, as well as among white voters. Moreover, acceptance is growing in all regions of the USA by 15 percentage points per decade. In the least accepting region of America — including the south eastern states like Mississippi and Oklahoma — 35 percent of the population supports equal marriage. That's where the US national average was in 2004.

Studies show that support for equal rights is higher when people know someone personally who is LGBT (pdf). By simply coming out to friends, family and colleagues, the prejudices that are used to justify discrimination are blown away. The testimony of real people outweighs the multi-million dollar anti-marriage campaigns waged on fear, as the marriage votes of Maine, Washington, Maryland and Minnesota have shown.

Others are concerned that backing LGBT equality may alienate the conservative base. But what could be more conservative than encouraging gay people to make a lifetime commitment to the person they love? What value could be more traditional than protecting everyone's right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, as guaranteed in the Constitution? For that matter, what could be more anti-patriotic, than jeering at a soldier serving in Iraq, putting his life on the line, in a televised presidential candidates' debate – an unforgivable outrage that none of the candidates had the decency to condemn?

If ethical principles won't encourage the Republicans to decouple conservatism from fundamentalist religion, maybe the numbers will. As religious commentator John Shook noted, church attendance has been falling. In March 2012, a Gallup poll found 32 percent non-religious; fewer than 25 percent go to a religious service more than twice a month. Fox News' exit poll of religious voters sends a warning: weekly churchgoers favoured Romney 59–39, while occasional congregants went 55–43 for Obama. But the latter outnumber the former, and the gap is set to widen.

Surveys repeatedly show religious allegiance is increasingly detached from behaviour and attitudes. Lay Christians do not share the reactionary views on social issues espoused by their religious leaders. While Catholic priests and bishops broke the law by telling their followers how to vote from the pulpit, more than four out of five Catholic voters feel no obligation to heed their instruction at the ballot box (pdf). The same Fox survey shows that only 16 percent of Catholic voters think gay marriage is an important issue. And even among evangelicals, the one voting category to whom the Republicans have focused their efforts in appealing to, Obama's share of the vote has actually risen, from 27 to 30 percent since 2008.

Equality is a vote-winner and homophobic bigotry is a vote-loser, because the population abhors such cruelty, and in any case, the same politicians that rail against gay marriage are more likely to get Creationism taught in schools, ban contraception and abortion even in the case of rape, pretend global warming doesn't exist, and so on. After the disaster of the 2012 elections, the Republicans are looking like an offshoot of the Westboro Baptist Church. If the party is to remain a serious force, a secular leadership capable of sidelining the extremist loons and offering rational, reasonable, constructive alternatives is urgently needed.

Secularist of the Year 2013 – tickets on sale now

News | Fri, 23rd Nov 2012

Tickets for the 2013 Secularist of the Year event are now on sale.

The £5,000 Irwin Prize for Secularist of the Year award is presented annually in recognition of an individual or an organisation nominated by NSS members as having made an outstanding contribution to the secular cause during the year. The award is kindly sponsored by NSS honorary associate Dr. Michael Irwin.

Previous winners include Peter Tatchell, Sophie in 't Veld MEP, Southall Black Sisters, and Evan Harris MP with Lord Avebury.

The next event is in London at lunch time on Saturday, March 23. You can find more information, and a link to ticket booking here.

In the meantime, if you want to nominate someone to win the prize, please send their name, with a few words about why you think they should win, to nominations@secularism.org.uk

Buy tickets

European research shows 32% of Britons are non-believers

News | Thu, 22nd Nov 2012

Eurobarometer, the public opinion analysis sector of the European Commission, has published a report on discrimination (pdf) in the EU which includes information on the self-reported beliefs of people across the EU.

Seven per cent are atheists and 16% agnostics or non-believers – 23% in total, with highs of 59% in the Czech republic, 49% in the Netherlands, 37% in Estonia and France, 43% in Sweden and 32% in the UK.

The lows are 0% in Cyprus and Romania, 3% in Bulgaria,Greece and Malta, 5% in Poland, 6% in Italy, and 7% in Ireland and Portugal.

Czech Catholic Church set to receive billions from state

News | Thu, 22nd Nov 2012

Czech MPs have voted by a narrow margin to let the Catholic Church reclaim properties seized during the 1940s and 1950s by the Communist regime. The amount involved is is £4.3 billion. Property was seized from the Catholic, Reformed, Brethren and Orthodox and Jewish communities.

The new law will also end the payment of clergy salaries by the state.

Under the new law, 56 per cent of church assets valued at £2.4billion are to be returned from January 2013, with £1.9 billion provided in compensation for the rest over a 30-year period, during which an annual government grant will be phased out. Assets belonging to the Catholic Church are thought to represent about 80 per cent of the total.

The Czech primate, Cardinal Dominik Duka, said the new arrangment would "benefit everyone", although how paying billions into the already bulging coffers of the Catholic Church while the country struggles with an economic downturn is to the benefit of everyone is not clear.

The Chairman of the non-Catholic Czech Ecumenical Council, Joel Rumi, said that losing state grants that funded clergy salaries posed a challenge, but it would help the church's image because they would be able to say that they no longer receive taxpayers' money.

Austrian Cardinal relocates to Brussels to insert Catholicism into EU policy-making

News | Thu, 22nd Nov 2012

The Austrian bishop's conference held its plenary meeting in Brussels this month because it wants to be nearer the EU – where it hopes to increase its influence.

Cardinal Christoph Schornborn said that Christians should engage in EU decision-making with the bishops as their mouthpiece.

During the visit to Brussels, bishops had met various EU politicians who all stressed the contribution of the Church to "ethical, social and environmental questions."

The Cardinal said that sometimes it was necessary to compromise in order to "secure Christian values in Europe".

NSS Speaks Out

Terry Sanderson took part in an hour long debate on BBC Radio Wales on Wednesday about the relevance of the Church, after the vote to reject female bishops. His blog on the topic was also published by Huffington Post and was quoted in The Times (subscription only).

Keith Porteous Woodwas quoted in The Guardian on the Supreme Court decision to make the Catholic Church and Christian Brothers share the compensation for abuse of hundreds of children at a Catholic-run children's home in East Yorkshire. He was interviewed on ITN News on the same topic.