Catholic chaplaincies across London spoke of their apprehension ahead of Prime Minister Theresa May signing the Article 50 letter today (29 March) beginning Britain’s formal exit from the European Union.
Fr Janos Csisco, a priest at the Hungarian chaplaincy in Ealing, west London, said that some young families in his parish had already decided to go back to Hungary. “About seven or eight of our 100 in the congregation (at Our Lady of Hungary church) have returned already because it’s a big question - what will happen next?”
Fr Christian Dieckmann of the German chaplaincy and St Boniface church in Tower Hamlets in East London told The Tablet there was a lingering feeling of disappointment and uncertainty among his 200 parishioners. At the French chaplaincy and Notre Dame de Paris church in Leicester Square, Fr Pascal Boidin concurred, saying: “the general feeling is one of anxiety and not knowing what to stand for or expect. A few years ago (French) people came to Britain and could see a life for themselves here, but now they’re a bit wary.”
Other chaplaincies took a more upbeat approach to the imminent withdrawal. The Croatian chaplaincy of 4,000 Croats said its community saw Brexit as “a challenge”. Chaplain Fr Ljubomir Simunovic said: “As a lighthouse of hope for all of our Croatian members we believe that the British society will remain completely inclusive as it has been up to now, regardless of the potential model of addressing the UK relationship with the EU as well as the issues related to the single market policy.”
Mgr Stefan Wylezek of the Polish chaplaincy said although the community are thinking about it, they are generally not anxious about the fall-out of Brexit just yet, with the few returning having planned to do so anyway. He said: “There are two years, nothing is going to change immediately, we will have to wait and see”.
Of the UK’s 63.7 million population, 2.9 million (five per cent) are from Europe, the largest group being Polish nationals at 853,000, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics for the period of January to December 2014. At present the government has not guaranteed the rights of EU citizens in the UK, saying it will wait until there is a deal involving British nationals who live in the rest of Europe.
Meanwhile, as tens of thousands of pro-EU demonstrators thronged Parliament Square on Saturday [25 March] to protest against Brexit, an Anglican priest lamented the lack of a more visible Church presence. The Revd David Marshall, formerly Chaplain to Rowan Williams when he was Archbishop of Canterbury, told The Tablet that he was “personally surprised and disappointed that there was little if any visible church presence on this occasion, given what I understood to be the virtual unanimity in favour of Remain on the part of the bishops of the Church of England before the Referendum.”
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