LONDON, ENGLAND, September 6, 2001: Christianity has been “all but eliminated” as a source of moral guidance in people’s lives, according to the head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales. The Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor also lamented the fact people were “indifferent” to Christian values and the Church when he addressed the National Conference of Priests in Leeds. “In our countries in Britain today, especially in England and Wales, that Christianity, as a sort of backdrop to people’s lives and moral decisions – and to the government, the social life of the country – has now almost been vanquished,” the Archbishop said. He added that music, new age and occult practices seemed to be replacing Christ as something in which young people could trust. The remarks come against a background of a steady decline in attendance at mass and a worsening shortage of priests. Between 1995 and 1999, 21 of the 5,600 Catholic priests in England and Wales were convicted of offenses against children. In July, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor himself acknowledged he had made a mistake after it emerged that as Bishop of Arundel and Brighton he appointed a pedophile priest as chaplain to the Gatwick Airport chapel despite concerns about his behavior. Father Michael Hill, who was released from prison last autumn, served three and a half years of a five-year sentence imposed in 1997 for nine sex attacks.
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