January 30, 2013 at 5:54 p.m.
Faith seen as 'private eccentricity' in England, says top Catholic cleric
Writing in a book released this week, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor came down hard on what he said was Britain's growing degeneration into a land free of morals and hostile to Christian values.
The book, called "Faith in the Nation," was published by the Institute for Public Policy Research and counts among its supporters Prime Minister Gordon Brown, himself the son of a hard-line Church of Scotland minister.
Murphy-O'Connor cites "serious tensions" between Christians and secularists in his book. The result, he said, has become an "unfriendly climate for people of all faiths" that has, as a result, united Britain's three major faiths: Christianity, Judaism and Islam.
"Religious belief of any kind now tends to be treated more as a private eccentricity than as the central and informative element in British society that it is," the cardinal writes.
"Although the tone of public discussion is sceptical or dismissive rather than anti-religious," he contends, "atheism has become more vocal and aggressive."
Murphy-O'Connor claims that Catholics have become the prime target of "liberal hostility" and that "the vocal minority who argue that religion has no role in modern British society portrays Catholic teaching on the family as prejudiced and intolerant."
But "Catholics are not alone in watching with dismay as the liberal society shows signs of degenerating into the libertine society," said the cardinal, who is nearing retirement from his role as the nation's senior and most powerful Catholic figure.
"British society champions tolerance and freedom," he said, "but that freedom is dependent upon responsibility."
Murphy-O'Connor's tough stance irked Keith Porteous Wood, executive director of the National Secular Society in London, who told journalists that "secularists and atheists are finding it necessary to express their views more vocally because of the increasing demands made by Christians and minority faiths."
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