Divisions over Brexit ahead of 23 June referendum

Catholics were among the faith leaders to sign a letter calling for Britain to stay in the European Union on the grounds that Brexit will undermine European efforts to keep peace and combat poverty.  

In signing the letter the Bishop Emeritus of Brentwood, Thomas McMahon, and Dr Ashley Beck, programme director in the Education, Theology and Leadership department at St Mary’s University, Twickenham, become the latest prominent Catholics to call for Britain to remain in the European Union.

They join Cardinal Vincent Nichols, who has said that there is a preference within Catholicism for holding things together, and Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, who wrote an article in The Spectator in favour of the Remain campaign.

But Archbishop Peter Smith of Southwark has denounced Remain’s “scare” tactics and said he is undecided, while the Provost of the London Oratory, Fr Julian Large, and former Conservative minister Iain Duncan Smith have firmly backed Brexit.

Their comments come despite the Bishops’ Conference insisting that it will not tell Catholics how to vote, instead issuing a joint statement in April urging Catholics to cast an informed vote given that the outcome will have consequences for the future of Britain, Europe and the world.

“We must ask ourselves, in the face of every issue, what will best serve the dignity of all people both within Europe and beyond,” they said. The 37 faith leaders who signed the Remain letter, which was published in the Observer on Sunday, also included the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord (Rowan) Williams of Oyster­mouth, as well as a senior rabbi, a leading Hindu and a professor of Islamic and Inter-Religious Studies at the University of Edinburgh.

“Faith is about integration and building bridges, not about isolation and erecting barriers,” they write. “As leaders and senior figures of faith communities, we urge our co-religionists and others to think about the implications of a leave vote for the things about which we are most passionate.”

Catholic signatory, Dr Ashley Beck, is an outspoken critic of Brexit. “I think the Leave campaign is fuelled by an anti-migrant feeling quite at odds with Catholic social teaching,” he told The Tablet. “I do not think you can believe in Catholic social teaching and vote to leave the EU,” he said.

Asked about the high-profile Catholics who indicated they would vote to leave, Dr Beck said he believed some Catholics no longer believed in Catholic social teaching. He added that he believed most Catholics would vote Remain.

A recent poll of 4,000 adults by Populus found that Christians were the most Eurosceptic faith group in the UK, with just 31 per cent saying they were leaning towards voting Remain compared to 40 per cent of Muslims and 73 per cent of Sikhs.

But polling in Northern Ireland conducted by market research agency, Millward Brown, found that Catholics were almost twice as likely as Protestants to vote to stay in the EU, with 53 per cent of Catholics saying they would vote to stay compared to 30 per cent of Protestants.

Just 13 per cent of Catholics in Northern Ireland said they would vote to leave, compared to 72 per cent of Protestants.