Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Westminster has told the financial sector to wake up from their moral sleep.
Speaking at the London School of Economics he said that while some were seeking a change of culture, as a group the financial sector had failed to reform itself.
“Until a different culture has taken hold, I cannot see how a real and necessary change can take place,” he said.
In his lecture “Good Life in Hard Times” he said the market, the state and society all exist to serve humanity and the common good.
Nichols argued strongly in favour of religious freedom, saying that it helped a thriving civil society and “increases our capacity to do good in the public square” and maintained that a society of many faiths, such a Britain, had a chance to export a new model of tolerant pluralism.
“Britain is a remarkable test case. We are living in a crucible in a global experiment of religious co-existence,” he said. “In this country we have the opportunity, through the greater acceptance of the positive role of religion, to exemplify and perhaps export a new model of tolerant religious pluralism.”
The archbishop argued that religious voices should not be excluded, but should not be given special privilege, either.
He said: “The mature and enlightened secular square should echo to the sound of many faiths, in dialogue with one another and with secular protagonists to the enrichment of all.”
Related
Good Life in Hard Times – Archbishop Nichols speech and Podcast
Source: Catholic Herald
Image: Catholic Church in England and Wales (Flickr)