THE
P RTAL
June 2016
Page 24
Brexit or Remain?
Is there a Catholic, or Christian even,
way to vote on 23rd June? Geoffrey Kirk
has been looking at examples from history
Is there
a Catholic view on Brexit? Or even a Christian one? Cardinal
Vincent Nichols and Cardinal Murphy O’Connor think there is – otherwise
why would they go on record with opinions on the matter? Archbishop Justin
Welby is doubtful – but convinced that a Christian is obliged to vote. George
Carey is for Brexit. But how seriously should we take these contributions – if at all?
History is not encouraging.
Leo III crowned Charlemagne
‘imperator romanorum’, which
might be thought to express a
preference for a united Europe;
but like other attempts at political
union (Napoleon, Hitler) it did not
last long.
Does Pius VII’s presence at the
coronation of Napoleon show
a similar devotion to European
union? And who now would stand
by Cardinal Innitzer’s decision to
celebrate the Anschluss by ordering all the church
bells in Vienna to be rung?
Since Vatican II, the Catholic Church, like most other
Christian bodies, has been pro-democracy. But it was
not always so. During most of the Church’s long history
a referendum on any subject would have been viewed
with abhorrence as a concession to the worst sort of
mob rule. Monarchy – indeed absolute monarchy –
was what the church sanctified and upheld – dynastic
houses in the West (Hapsburgs, Bourbons, Tudors),
Caesaro-papalism in the East. And monarchy in the
West was for long inseparable from the developing
notion of the nation state.
The Brexiters’ talk of ‘sovereignty’ is rooted in the
very Tudor notion that a kingdom is necessarily
an empire in itself. And the Church of England’s
enthusiasm for absolute monarchy was extinguished
only by a civil war.
So what notice, if any, should we take of the opinions
of churchmen in the present debate? Clearly, there are
some issues on which the Church has a legitimate say,
and Catholics are duty bound to take heed.
The cry that religion and politics should remain for
ever separate is simply an attempt by secularists to
contents page
drive Christianity from the
public square. But on many,
perhaps most, of the issues
of contemporary politics
there is no Catholic or even
Christian, position.
The consequence of which
is that what you think of
Cardinal Nichols’s advice
will rather depend on what
you think of Cardinal
Nichols.