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A Catholic in Politics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2024

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My family were Church-and-State Tories of an untheoretical, moderate sort. Eldest sons ‘went into politics’ and younger sons ‘went into the Church’. A religious outlook was taken for granted; the religion was very sincere; so were the politics.

They served God according to their light and the King according to their light. The lights were not as dim as some people now suppose. My grandfather, a man of unostentatious piety, was well-read in theology. He was also interested in social reform and played a part in founding schools for the poor and the first reformatories.

Type
Research Article
Information
Blackfriars , Volume 32 , Issue 372 , March 1951 , pp. 101 - 107
Copyright
Copyright © 1951 Provincial Council of the English Province of the Order of Preachers

References

1 As for a ‘Catholic’ party—my chief objection to ‘P.R.’ is that it would give a chance for such a party to arise! We should be in a tiny minority, usually in uneasy alliance with a large and alien party that would have little understanding or sympathy for us; while the other large parties, losing any hope of the Catholic vote, would ride roughshod over us. Is it not a fact that ‘Catholic’ parties abroad have arisen, not to express Catholic social principles, but in reply to an anti‐clerical spirit to which Britain is a stranger?

2 But I wonder whether Anglicanism would not be stronger in the House of Lords if the bishops were not there. Anglican views might command more Parliamentary agreement if they were put, as ours are, by well‐instructed or well‐briefed laymen. I think that Archbishops are better heard outside, rather than in Parliament.

Cardinal Bourne once told me he considered it would be a great mistake for him to sit in some ‘reformed’ House—as is often suggested by theorists.