Conservative Leader accused of insulting Scottish Cardinal

David Cameron has been accused of insulting Cardinal Keith O’Brien, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland. Apparently, Michael Martin, the first Catholic Speaker of the House of Commons since the Reformation, had arranged a dinner in the Cardinal’s honour, to which the leaders of the political parties had been invited. This was accompanied by further audiences with the Scottish Secretary, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and the Secretary of State for International Development.

Mr Cameron, however, suddenly found himself ‘too busy’. According to ‘sources close to the Cardinal’, he was left ‘fuming’, ‘angry’, and feeling ‘snubbed’ – it was considered ‘a real discourtesy’. Mr Cameron needs to tread very carefully. The last Tory to offend the Catholic Church was hounded out of office. Of course, tensions between prelates and politicians are nothing new, but England rid itself of papal interference centuries ago.

Yet the Roman Catholic Church is again flexing its muscle. In England, she represents a high moral stability and apostolic continuity where the Church of England is perceived to compromise. Unpalatable teachings such as Humanae Vitae, banning artificial contraception, or Dominus Iesus, dismissing the Church of England as not being a ‘proper’ church, are played down. In countries where Rome’s grip is surer - Uganda, Haiti, the Philippines – there is concerted effort to control government departments, the media, and education, which many papal encyclicals have stated should be subject to the Church's authority. Religious freedom in such countries is virtually non-existent. In Croatia, for example, any expression of Christianity other than Catholicism is viewed with official suspicion, and there has been proposed legislation to filter out all non-Catholic churches, including Protestant ‘sects’ and ‘cults’.