Cardinal Vincent Nichols has defended the role of faith schools in Britain, arguing that the provision of education is an important part of how religion contributes to wider society.
It is also a means through which “our religious belief and practice become open to public scrutiny and accountability,” the cardinal said. This was particularly important, he added, “in our response to those who say, increasingly loudly, that there is no place for ‘faith’ schools in our modern British society”.
The cardinal made his comments during a wide-ranging address at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies on Tuesday on the theme of dialogue in action. He said that dialogue is sustained only when there is trust, respect and friendship. If there is to be mutual respect and understanding between religions, then a “dialogue of experience is essential”, he added.
Speaking of his work with Muslim leaders, Cardinal Nichols said that it has been based, “substantially on the shared experience of being a religious minority in a society in which an increasing secularism is evident.” One of the imperatives, he explained, had been to reach out to people beyond “our own religious affiliation” and to extend compassion and assistance to those most in need.
On the issue of how people of faith can contribute to debates about the role of government, the Archbishop of Westminster said the aim is to find ways in which the voice of faith can speak “compellingly and in confidence”. Referring to comments by the then Pope Benedict during his visit to the UK in 2010 on the role of religion and reason in political debate, Cardinal Nichols asked his audience to consider one contemporary issue: the current consultation on changing organ donation into automatic organ retrieval by the public authorities in England. “How might our beliefs about the dignity of the human person, the integrity of body and spirit, and the rights of individuals and families, guide our shared responses to this question?” he asked.
There are additional pressures on all forms of religious obsevance, the cardinal said due to globalisation, "the on-demand culture and the reduction in attention spans". All have their "ramifications" for people of faith, he warned.
Cardinal Nichols focused a large part of his address on the witness of St Francis of Assisi, drawing on the saint's visit to the Sultan al-Kamil in Egypt in 1219 in the middle of the Fifth Crusade. Despite the deep conflict and bitter politics of the time, all St Francis wanted to do was promote peace, he said. That message is still relevant today, he concluded, as relations between faith and society will be "significantly impoverished if dialogue between faiths is characterised by suspicion or hostility, or is simply non-existent".
PICTURE: Cardinal Vincent Nichols (image/PA).
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