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Episcopacy, law and government
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 January 2024
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This Comment, based substantially on a lecture delivered to the Ecclesiastical Law Society on 5 July 2023, will explore how bishops engage with the legislature, comparing the example of Bishop George Bell in the last century with a rather different example in the present century, namely Pope Benedict XVI and his address to members of Parliament in Westminster Hall in 2010. The comparison will, I hope, indicate some historic dimensions to the issues of episcopacy, law and government that are pertinent today.
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References
1 In the letter to the Smyrnaeans, Ignatius writes, ‘Wheresoever the bishop shall appear, there is the universal Church’; cf. Lightfoot, J, The Apostolic Fathers (London, 1893)Google Scholar. The role of the bishop as outlined by Ignatius is commended by Richard Hooker in J Keble (ed), The Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity (Oxford, 1845), vii.vi.8
2 The Epistle to Diognetus, V.5, in Lightfoot (note 1).
3 HL Deb 9 February 1944, vol 130 cc 737–55.
4 For example, Viscount Fitzalan of Derwent responded (ibid, cc 746–47): ‘My Lords, I cannot possibly agree with what I understand to be the views of the right reverend Prelate who has just spoken in regard to bombing on the Continent. I am an out-and-out bomber, and I approve of the bombing action the Government have taken against Germany, and I hope that there may be more to come…’.
5 Ibid, c 746.
6 Ringshausen, G and Chandler, A (eds), The George Bell – Gerhard Leibholz Correspondence (London, 2019), xviiCrossRefGoogle Scholar.
7 The text of the lecture can be accessed here: <https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/speeches/2010/september/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20100917_societa-civile.html>, accessed 28 July 2023.
8 Williams, R, ‘“Saving Our Order”: Becket and the Law’ (2021) 23 Ecc LJ 127–139Google Scholar.
9 Ibid, 137.
10 Ibid, 138–139.
11 The Report of the Ecclesiastical Law Society Working Party on the Seal of the Confessional, 30 June 2023, <https://ecclawsoc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/The-Report-of-the-ELS-Working-Part-on-the-Seal-of-Confession.pdf>, accessed 28 July 2023.
12 cf. ‘Reporting and acting on child abuse and neglect: Summary of consultation responses and Government action’, 5 March 2018, paras 16–26, which is available here: <https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/685463/Reporting_and_acting_on_child_abuse_and_neglect_-_response_print.pdf>, accessed 28 September 2023.
13 See, for example, <https://www.gov.uk/government/news/pm-to-clamp-down-on-grooming-gangs>, accessed 29 July 2023.
14 Government response to the Final Report of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (May 2023), 3, which can be accessed at: <https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1158298/Government_Response_to_IICSA_FINAL.pdf.>, accessed 28 September 2023.
15 IICSA, The Anglican Church: Safeguarding in the Church of England and the Church in Wales (October 2020), which can be accessed here: <https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ukgwa/20221215023918/https://www.iicsa.org.uk/key-documents/22519/view/anglican-church-investigation-report-6-october-2020.pdf>, accessed 28 September 2023.
16 Ibid, 77.
17 See, for example: <https://www.churchofengland.org/media-and-news/press-release/statement-archbishops-council-safeguarding-independent-board>, accessed 28 July 2023.
18 The Anglican Church: Safeguarding in the Church of England and the Church in Wales (note 15), 116.
19 HC Deb 21 March 2023, vol 730 cc185–188.
20 HC Deb 24 January 2023, vol 726 c880.
21 HC Deb 21 March 2023, vol 730 c187.
22 Bolt, R, A Man for All Seasons (London, 1960), Act 2, 79Google Scholar.