Lord Brennan urges young adults to become involved in Church life

l-r Assistant Chaplain, Fr Roger Dawson SJ; Bonnie Lander (President of Oxford CathSoc, Lord Brennan QC, Francis Davis from Las Casas Institute. Photo: Ged Clapson

A leading Catholic peer has urged young adults to get more involved in the life of the Church in England and Wales, and says they should be prepared to stand up and defend and articulate their faith more.

Lord Daniel Brennan QC, a Deputy High Court Judge, former Chairman of the Bar Council and President of the Catholic Union, was addressing a gathering of Catholic students at the Oxford University Catholic Chaplaincy which was sponsored by the Las Casas Institute, Blackfriars Hall, Oxford. He focused particularly on the role of the laity and said that the Catholic Church needs to be more prepared to identify how it can use its intellectually able lay people to influence society.

Drawing parallels with Cardinal John Henry Newman who rediscovered the communities of the original Church and encouraged a Church in which the laity practiced their faith alongside, not beneath the clergy, he said he wanted to see the laity defending the faith, not just clergy. "We need laity who are prepared to go out in society and bear witness, people who are bright, intelligent, have a sense of humour and who are prepared to engage with the media; and that includes taking part in public debates with secularists," he said.

Lord Brennan, who was raised to the House of Lord by the Queen in May 2000, expressed the opinion that parish clergy have a rich resource in their laity and the Church needs to use its experts more, particularly in issues of ethics. "On the economy, on life issues such as euthanasia, the Church - both clergy and laity - should express its view clearly and passionately," he told the students who had come from other UK universities as well as Oxford itself. "It's a duty - not just an opportunity!"

Source: Jesuit Communications