Monday, December 31, 2007

Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor concerned that Polish Immigrants are Creating a "Separate Church in Britain"

From an article in the Telegraph:

Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, the Archbishop of Westminster, urged the Polish community to do more to learn English and integrate into local parishes, claiming the Catholic Church in the UK was in danger of dividing along ethnic lines as the number of Polish-speaking churches rose.

This is a surprising statement coming from a Cardinal who allowed the 99 Names of Allah concert to take place in his cathedral. Is there a double-standard here? What threatens the unity of the Church more: some believing immigrants from a faraway land, or a concert that gives a platform to another religion?

I would think that the cardinal would be grateful for anyone's Mass attendance, given the present state of things. Not surprisingly, a diocesan bureaucrat was sent to the press to help the cardinal attempt to backpedal.

Of course, regarding integration, there is one particular language that unites Catholics of the Roman Rite. What is that called again? I'm not thinking of it presently....

More recent articles:

For more articles, see the NLM archives: