Catholic leaders and organisations have called upon Liz Truss to “promote the common good” as the cost of living crisis continues. The Catholic Union last week, 7 October, sent a letter to the prime minister requesting a meeting with her team.
Nigel Parker, director of the the Catholic Union, said in a statement: “There are a number of pressing issues where our expertise can assist the new administration.” These included “fairer taxes for families, protecting human life in all forms, protecting Christians from persecution, valuing Catholic and other faith schools in our education system and championing fundamental human rights”.
In the letter, Mr Parker congratulates the new prime minister upon their appointment and “echoes” Cardinal Vincent Nichols’ “promise of prayerful support” for the new premier. He writes: “We would be grateful for an early opportunity to meet some of your new team in Downing Street to see how we might be able to work together on mutual areas of interest.” No reply to the letter has been received as yet.
The Catholic Union, which represents 4.5 million lay Catholics in the UK, maintains an active parliamentary office to promote the views and interests of Catholics and to “advance the common good” more generally.
The news came as the Archbishop of Glasgow called on the UK government to tie benefits to inflation, as politicians continue to consider whether to protect welfare from a real-terms cut in the wake of the cost of living crisis.
William Nolan, installed as Archbishop on 26 February this year, said in a statement that “It is essential that the Government commit to upgrading benefits to at least keep pace with inflation. The poor must not be sacrificed in an attempt to shore up the Government’s credibility with the markets. Making the poor poorer is not an act of fiscal prudence, it is an act of injustice.”
Pointing out that the delay in a decision is already causing great anxiety and stress, the Archbishop said proposals to fix benefits at their current rate “seems so immoral”. “Guaranteeing security for the most vulnerable in society is a sign of a civilised country.”
The new government has come under fire from Catholic groups for a perceived lack of sympathy for the vulnerable and concern for the common good, with several organisations criticising Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s “mini-budget” fiscal statement. The Caritas Social Action Network (CSAN) issued a statement on the “mini-budget” calling Kwarteng’s plans “an unjust distribution of resources” - and noted that “trickle down economics” had been rejected by Pope Francis himself.
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