British media outrage over Church's official's condemnation of 'culture of death'

September 01, 2010

English liberals and gay-rights activists have voiced outrage at a statement by a Catholic official, who said in an interview that London is “the geopolitical epicenter of the culture of death.”

In an interview with the Zenith news agency, Edmund Adamus, the director of pastoral affairs for the Westminster archdiocese, painted a generally favorable picture of the Church’s influence in society, saying that “by and large many people appreciate and value the witness of the Holy Father on fundamental moral issues.” But he also noted an “aggressive anti-Catholic bias” in some circles, and charged that the country’s political leaders “for over 50s years or more have been the most permissively anti-life and progressively anti-family and marriage.” Adamus also said that the promotion of recreational sex and the gay agenda were creating “a selfish, hedonistic wasteland.”

Seizing on these strong statements by Adamus, critics of the Catholic Church charged that Adamus was inflaming public opinion just before the visit by Pope Benedict XVI to Great Britain.

A spokesman for Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Westminster said that the published comments by his staff member “did not reflect the archbishop’s opinions.” The spokesman did not indicate specific areas of disagreement between the archbishop and Adamus.

 

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Further information:

• England, the Pope, and Marriage (Zenit)
• Archbishop's aide calls Britain a 'hedonistic wasteland' (Guardian)
• Britain a 'selfish and hedonistic wasteland', says Archbishop's adviser (Daily Telegraph)