The UK’s most senior Roman Catholic said yesterday that “tolerance is being abolished” as secularists seek to wipe out the Christian faith in Britain.
Addressing Leicester's Anglican Cathedral, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor warned of a rising and “dangerous” intolerance from atheists, telling the congregation that: "In the name of tolerance it seems to me tolerance is being abolished."
The Cardinal, who retired as Archbishop of Westminster and leader of the Catholic Church in England and Wales three years ago, reminded his listeners that secular values were behind the violence carried out in totalitarian states and many of the 20th century conflicts that killed millions.
And he warned that aggressive secularists were now crushing freedoms in the UK:
"Our danger in Britain today is that so-called western reason claims that it alone has recognised what is right and thus claims a totality 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."
"The propaganda of secularism and its high priests want us to believe that religion is dangerous for our health. It suits them to have no opposition to their vision of a brave new world, the world which they see as somehow governed only by people like themselves.”
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The Cardinal also denounced the equality laws that have led to the closure of Catholic adoption agencies, and protested against the treatment of Christians who had been stopped from wearing a cross at work.
He condemned the Government’s plans to introduce same-sex ‘marriage’, noting that opposing such plans was not prejudice against homosexuals, but was “a more subtle issue, namely about democracy and the nature of marriage itself.”
“On what grounds does a minority have the right to change the meaning of a fundamental institution for the majority?” he said.
The Cardinal also challenged the loss of “reverence” for humanity which meant that elderly people are seen as a problem for society, rather than a gift.
Comment
Andrea Minichiello Williams, CEO of Christian Concern, said:
“The Cardinal’s claim that tolerance is being abolished is borne out more clearly with every passing week.
“Only last week, the Law Society attempted to ban a conference we organised to debate the role of marriage in society, claiming it breached its diversity policy.
“Also last week, a Christian blogger was put under an official investigation for showing an advertisement on his site which promoted the current legal definition of marriage.
“More seriously, many Christians have been demoted, penalised and sacked over the last few years simply for wanting to abide by their conscience at work.
“People are now starting to see how secularism and the homosexual rights movement dangerously threaten freedom of belief and freedom of speech.
“However, I am confident that those who support such ideologies will fail in their attempt to remove Christianity from having any influence in the UK.”
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