Cardinal Vincent Nichols has signed a letter calling on people in Britain to “challenge racial and communal prejudice wherever it is found”, following an apparent surge in ethnic tensions last week.
The cardinal, along with the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis and Muslim leader Ali Razi Rizvi, said in a joint letter that “increasing reports of inter communal discord and racial hatred are cause for the gravest concern”. Since the referendum result reports of racial hate crimes have risen by 57 per cent.
The letter, which appeared in the Times, urged citizens to avoid “looking for scapegoats”. The leaders said: “Today we call upon every citizen of our great country to recognise personal accountability for their every action, rather than avoiding that responsibility by looking for scapegoats, and to challenge racial and communal prejudice wherever it is found and thus ensure that we are, more than ever, a country united.”
Meanwhile, the Catholic Association for Racial Justice (CARJ), an agency of the bishops’ conference, said the rise in tensions had “disturbed” its vision of Britain as a “diverse society at ease with itself”.
A statement, signed by Yogi Sutton, chair of CARJ trustees, noted a recent document, The Changing Face of Britain, which celebrated the progress Britain had made towards becoming a “truly inclusive society”.
“Recent events have seriously disturbed any complacency on our part, and they may have begun to undermine our positive achievements,” the CARJ statement said.
“We come out of the recent referendum more conscious of our divisions and more uncertain about our ‘common values’.”
Teachers and academics from Heythrop College, London have written to the press to voice their support for a proposed partnership with Roehampton University.
Following a report in the Tablet that plans for a potential merger between the two universities might stall, Heythrop members of staff have issued a statement to clarify their support for such a move, saying the closure of the university would be “a tragedy with reverberations on the international stage”.
They wrote: “Since the announcement in 2015 that Heythrop could no longer continue as an autonomous college within the University of London, the governors and the Society of Jesus have been committed to finding a way in which its mission and work, including its ecclesiastical faculties within the Bellarmine Institute, will continue in a new form after 2018.
“Eight months of creative and positive discussions with the University of Roehampton have concluded that a merger between both institutes would be financially viable and academically and pastorally fruitful in furthering the Jesuit intellectual apostolate in Britain.
“The Society of Jesus has sought the support of the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster and of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, in order to continue the mission of the college. Staff confidently hope to receive support for a merger that holds so much promise.”
The Tablet reported last week that the sticking point in discussions was the future of the Bellarmine Institute, an ecclesiastical faculty and pontifical institute within Heythrop College serving seminarians preparing for ordination.
Concerns have reportedly circulated about the institute’s Catholicity under the jurisdiction of a non-Catholic university should the merger go ahead.
But staff members said: “We are confident that the Catholicity of the Bellarmine Institute and Heythrop College within the context of the University of Roehampton will be safeguarded by robust governance structures. The content of the ecclesiastical degrees taught and the academic staff teaching in the Bellarmine Institute were approved by the Congregation for Catholic Education in 2013. Any modifications are subject to re-approval by the Congregation.”
They continued: “It would be a tragedy with reverberations on the international stage if Heythrop College should be forced to close, despite the development of a financially viable model and an academically rich curriculum to enable its mission and work to continue.”
The statement said that the closure would cast doubt on “the credibility of the Catholic Church in England and Wales in fostering and protecting serious academic study of philosophy and theology. Support for the proposed Heythrop-Roehampton partnership is consistent with concerns to safeguard the Catholicity of the education of Catholic clergy and laity in England and Wales.”
Heythrop College, set up in 1614 by the Society of Jesus, announced it would not be admitting any more graduates two years ago, citing the challenges of meeting the costs as an autonomous college within the University of London.
It was first in discussions with St Mary’s University in Twickenham about a potential merger but the plans fell through.
A judge in Kosovo has blocked the extradition to Britain of the former abbot of Ealing Abbey.
Laurence Soper, who is 72, is wanted in connection with accusations of sexual abuse which are alleged to have taken place during the 1970s at St Benedict’s School. But the crimes he stands accused of have expired under Kosovar law’s statute of limitations.
Mr Soper was first arrested in 2010 but he was not charged. An appeal hearing is expected to take place.
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