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No Catholicism, Please, We’re British

Rowan Williams opposes new Catholic schools because of 'social cohesion'

Rowan Williams (Mark William Penny/Shutterstock)
Robert Louis Wilken, in 2004:

In my lifetime we have witnessed the collapse of Christian civilization. At first the process of disintegration was slow, a gradual and persistent attrition, but today it has moved into overdrive, and what is more troubling, it has become deliberate and intentional, not only promoted by the cultured despisers of Christianity but often aided and abetted by Christians themselves.

The former Archbishop of Canterbury, 2018:

The former head of the Anglican Communion has joined Richard Dawkins in attacking a policy that would allow the Catholic Church to open new schools.

Dr Rowan Williams, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, co-signed a letter to the Daily Telegraph saying it was “difficult to bring to mind a more divisive policy, or more deleterious to social cohesion” than removing an admissions cap that prevents new faith schools from selecting more than half of their intake from their own religion.

Social cohesion — social cohesion! — matters more to Rowan Williams than truth, or even the survival of the religion he professes. Pathetic, just pathetic. As one Catholic theologian observes:

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Father Peter Sanlon is right! If they made him Archbishop of Canterbury, the C of E might have a chance. If I won the lottery, I’d buy your kids a pony.

UPDATE: Alasdair MacIntyre:

A crucial turning point in that earlier history occurred when men and women of good will turned aside from the task of shoring up the Roman imperium and ceased to identify the continuation of civility and moral community with the maintenance of that imperium. What they set themselves to achieve instead—often not recognising fully what they were doing—was the construction of new forms of community within which the moral life could be sustained so that both morality and civility might survive the coming ages of barbarism and darkness.

Rowan Williams obviously believes it’s more important to maintain the imperium, so to speak, than to save the nation’s dying faith. Do not do as he would have you do.

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