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LETTER: reader protests after tabloid misreports Anglican and Catholic leaders


Dear ICN

I was standing in a shop in North London yesterday morning when I saw the Daily Mail headline about Archbishop Vincent Nichols' 'furious backlash' at comments made yesterday by the Anglican Church's Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams. There were references to Nichols' support for the policies of the current Westminster administration and a 'holy war' breaking out between the two. And around me there were many comments being made about this apparent clash of faiths and the Catholic church siding with government. So I read the paper.

First I was incensed that as a fellow practising Catholic and one with much knowledge of social and economic history, Archbishop Nichols could have read the same policy documents that I have over the past year and then come to the conclusion that this particular government had a 'moral agenda' at the back of its intentions and that the Big Society was not a cover for cuts, in other words their actions were good, their intentions honest.

Then as I fumed and went about searching for his email so that I could berate him directly for his apparent wish to be on right side of a government which appears to be mistaking ideology for policy, I remembered that this was the Daily Mail and that not all within its pages should necessarily be taken literally. It has been a while since I'd had to pay it any attention. So I went home and checked your website for the latest news on the 'clerical clash' only to find that Archbishop Nichols had made the comments quoted in the tabloid at a Caritas conference and not in direct response to Archbishop Williams' comments. And that in fact it was a conference vote, not his opinion or that of the people, which deemed the 'Big Society' as something positive rather than a cover for the cuts.

I am still outraged but this time at the Mail. How can it get away with such flagrant disregard for place and context? Perhaps this shows that despite Mr Cameron's views on Archbishop Williams' comments and the inference that church should not comment on state, words from the mouths of faith leaders carry more influence than politicians would like us to think they do. Either way there must be some redress surely? My opposition to the current administration's intentions are based on factual research but more than that, they are based on the premise of social justice, the right thing to do, rather than the expedient, in other words the teachings of Christ. He teaches the rich of philanthropy, for the rest of us the message is to do all in our power to restore the balance between those with much and those with much less.

Rowan Williams in my view was following that teaching. He made a statement about the feelings of suspicion and fear among those with little voice in this country. David Cameron refuted them. Last week I walked down the street with a 60 year old woman who has spent her life caring for her sick daughter and grand daughter despite the fact that her life had been dogged by physical and mental illnesses. She is now living in fear that her disability allowance is about to be revoked. I have a friend who has lived in a hostel and who is living in fear of eviction from her current temporary accommodation. There are many mothers in the area where I work who are considering whether or not they must give up work because affordable childcare and after school clubs are no longer an option and young people already hanging out on the streets because their youth clubs have gone. Rowan Williams got it right which goes to show he's listening. Perhaps it is precisely because he got it so right that there has been such condemnation of him. it is good to see a Church leader prepared to get his hands dirty.

I read the Evening Standard last night, it said Christina Odone, an influential Catholic journalist had berated Williams' for stepping over the line.......The Evening Standard is from the same stable as the Mail. I am ignoring this article in the hope that Christina Odone has also been misquoted. In this country, at this time, there is no space for those living in comfort to start dictating the lines of debate and who is or is not entitled to step over them. Look at your young people, at UKUncut and others imaginatively protesting against the current government's policies and the disparity between the 'moral agenda' of a government who appears to be punishing the poor and vulnerable for with a tax on living whilst they turn a blind eye to the loopholes that allow the rich to get richer thanks to their offshore bank accounts. If ever there was a time in the life of the church to step over the line and counter the stories like that in yesterday's papers, it is now.

Thank you for your time,

All the best,

Elizabeth Connell
London
England

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