Cardinal Nichols: UK would face problems if it left the EU

Cardinal Vincent Nichols has warned that it would be harder for the UK to face socio-economic problems if it left the European Union.

Speaking at a press conference in London on Friday, the day that the Leave and Remain groups began to campaign in earnest, the Cardinal said that the Catholic instinct was “to look for the whole”.

The Bishops Conference of England and Wales today put out an effectively neutral statement on the EU Referendum, calling on Catholics to pray before they voted.

That statement said that the human person, not economics, was at the heart of the debate.

While the bishops acknowledged “the profoundly religious roots of European nations” and that “Europe has a two thousand year-old Christian culture”, they also noted “the justifiable concerns that many people have in relation to the European Union”.

But speaking in a personal capacity, Cardinal Nichols said that there was a long tradition within Catholicism “of holding things together”.

“Once you start down the path of division, that almost inevitably leads to further division. Once it becomes your solution it becomes a frequent solution,” he said.

He pointed out that Pope Francis had himself spoken in support of European unity.

“If the UK was to leave Europe I think we would face more complex problems with more difficulty finding our role than we would by playing an active and vigorous part within Europe,” he concluded.

He stressed that the Catholic Church would not tell people how to vote.

Elsewhere in the press conference, which concluded the bishops’ bi-annual plenary meeting in Leeds, the Cardinal welcomed Pope Francis' exhortation on the family, Amoris Laetitia.

Cardinal Nichols, who attended both of the Rome synods that shaped the document, said that a number of chapters were written in Francis' distinctive style. As such, he said it carried tremendous weight.

In a statement agreed at the plenary the bishops' conference also unanimously welcomed the document. They emphasised its call for a compassionate and pastoral response to people in irregular relationships, in particular those who are divorced and remarried.

"In the particular case of the divorced and civilly remarried, there is a need to consider both those elements which can lead to a greater openness to the gospel of marriage in its fullness and those factors which may limit a free response to the Gospel in order to understand the subjective situation of a person before God. "Hence it can no longer simply be said that all those in any irregular situation are living in a state of mortal sin and are deprived of sanctifying grace" (301). Through this spiritual discernment they should feel confident in the promise of God’s mercy, the love of the Church and discover the next step in their response to God," they wrote.

"Pope Francis therefore encourages all who find themselves in difficult situations to speak confidently to their priests in order to understand their personal situation before God and discover a path of personal growth."

Asked if this meant that divorced and remarried Catholics could receive Communion, Cardinal Nichols said that to focus only on this distorted the issue, which had at its heart the question of a person's relationship with God.

Also during the press conference he explained why he was reluctant to describe IS’ actions in the Middle East as a genocide, despite calls from Catholic charities to do so.

“The use of the word in general language I quite understand. I have a slight difficulty in as much as genocide seems to suggest a single target whereas what we’re seeing in the Middle East has multiple religious targets and that’s a complication. Secondly genocide is a legal term,” he said.

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