Showing posts with label
Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor.
Show all posts
Showing posts with label
Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor.
Show all posts
Secular belief masks a steely intolerance
I am sure I am not the only person who found the letter from Michael Gerard, president of Leicester Secular Society, with its anti-Catholic diatribe, particularly offensive ("Speech stirs up hatred of secularists, Mailbox, June 7).
It shows, as we have seen many times before, that beneath a facade of tolerance, there lurks a steely intolerance of any religious belief far exceeding that shown to secularists by people of faith.
I was not fortunate enough to be present when Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor gave his recent speech in Leicester, but if he stated that "secular values" are permeating insidiously every aspect of western life, he was absolutely correct.
The letter quotes him as stating that "no-one should be forced to live according to the new secular religion as if it alone were definitive and obligatory for all mankind".
We see evidence of this around us when we read of intolerance of people wearing crosses to work, or councils stating that there should be no prayers before meetings.
Michael criticises Franco in Spain, no doubt with some justification, but his regime also had merits. Remember that Christians are not perfect, and are in need of salvation.
It is simply not true to say that the Catholic Church connived with the Nazis regarding Jewish slaughter. Pope Pius XII did much behind the scenes to protect Jews, although some of it was not visible at the time for obvious reasons.
The so-called intransigent attitude of the Church to birth control and abortion are not there to annoy people: they are simply stating God's moral law.
The former denies the act of creation its natural outcome, the latter is murder, pure and simple.
Michael, please do not talk about stirring up hatred against secularists, (which nobody sensible wants to see) for that is exactly what you are trying to do against Christians.
Mark W Jacques OP, Quorn
Speech stirs up hatred of secularists
As president of Leicester Secular Society, I was surprised by the reports about the address by Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor that appeared to suggest we are achieving world domination (May 17).
The former leader of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, speaking at Leicester's Anglican Cathedral, is reported to have said that "Secular values" were behind the violence carried out in totalitarian states and some of the 20th century conflicts that have killed millions.
"Our danger in Britain today is that so-called Western Reason has recognised what is right and thus claims reality – reality that is inimical to freedom," he said.
"No one is forced to be a Christian. But no one should be forced to live according to the new secular religion as if it alone were definitive and obligatory for all humankind."
We need to remind him, gently, when he states "no one is forced to be a Christian", that until the death of dictator General Franco, of Spain, the Catholic church worked hand in glove with the fascist dictator's government; burying its dead in church, while Republicans were usually shot and flung into unmarked ditches.
His Church was essentially compulsory and to dissent was to risk death.Perhaps he should remember how the Catholic Church connived with the Nazis in the slaughter of Jewish people.
Further, our own Queen "Bloody" Mary Tudor had non-Catholics executed in large numbers.
He confuses what he calls "secular religion" with consumer capitalism. This, as he may know, had its origins in the late Middle Ages – in Catholic Florence and Venice.
I suppose he cares to ignore his Church's intransigent attitudes to abortion and birth control, which are helping to imperil the world by forcing yet more hungry mouths into existence, leading to resource degradation.
I consider that stirring up religious hatred against secularists is equally as bad as stirring it up against other denominations.
Michael Gerard, president, Leicester Secular Society
