New Government should take up cause of Christians

Cardinal Vincent Nichols has said the next government must be ready to speak out and act to defend persecuted Christians, writes Liz Dodd.

In an article for The Daily Telegraph the cardinal, who travelled to Iraq to meet Christian refugees earlier this month, said: “Any reluctance by a UK government to speak and act in this way, especially on behalf of Christian communities facing unprecedented persecution, would be particularly significant.”
He added: “It would undermine the mutual trust between our foremost religious faith and our public representatives that is so necessary for the wellbeing of our society.”

Cardinal Nichols argued that society has a duty to respect the rights of believers – and that freedom of religion is a basic human right – but stressed that this freedom must not be used as a pretext to violate the freedoms of others.

“Religious fundamentalism and secularist ideology are joint contributors to a dangerous spiral of mistrust and antagonism that makes lasting solutions more difficult to attain,” he concluded.