Pope transformed British attitudes toward catholics
-07/04/05
The pope transformed British attitudes towards Roman Catholicism, a shift reflected in the presence of the future monarch and Supreme Governor of the Church of England, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Prime Minister at his funeral, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor said yesterday.
The cardinal, the leader of Roman Catholics in England and Wales, said the Pope’s charisma, travels and use of the world media helped the English Church gain acceptance in mainstream British culture, reports the Daily Telegraph.
Roman Catholicism has been regarded historically with suspicion by the English Establishment, though the late Cardinal Basil Hume, who was Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor’s predecessor, did much to change the climate.
One indication of softening attitudes has been the repeated challengesto the centuries’ old ban on the monarch marrying a Roman Catholic.
Edward Leigh, a Conservative MP recently had a 10-minute Rule Bill in the House of Commons which proposed the repeal of the 300-year-old legislation passed at the time of the Glorious Revolution, which prevents heirs to the throne marrying “Papists”.
The MP’s move followed calls by many religious and secular bodies including the Christian thinktank Ekklesia and the Fabian Society that the archaic rule should be changed.
The Bill by the MP was seen as a measure of cross-party concern that antique laws such as the Bill of Rights, Act of Settlement and Acts of Union between England and Scotland should include provisions for concerns which have long passed into history except for a small fringe of Protestant fundamentalists.
There have been a number of attempts to remove the discriminatory clauses in recent years.
The cardinal said in Rome yesterday, that he would be seeing Dr Rowan Williams tomorrow night at a service at the English College before the funeral on Friday. “It is quite remarkable that it is the first time in history that we will have an Archbishop of Canterbury, the heir to the throne, the Prince of the Wales, and the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, attending the funeral of a Pope together,” he said.
“The English Church is now more accepted and recognised. The Pope has left a legacy to the world that the Petrine ministry is of service not just to the Church but also to the whole world.”
He said the Pope’s visit to Britain in 1982 had brought the British Catholic community together and boosted its confidence. “The rest of Britain looked on with amazement at this visit and thought they were rather glad that the Catholics were here.”
The cardinal said that he expected the Pope’s influence to live on and dismissed suggestions that his popularity was merely the result of “media stardom”.
He said: “I don’t expect people to become converts necessarily” but the cardinal added that the Pope had made them think. “His legacy has been to show that you should not try to take religious values out of the world.”