Attending the Cardinal's Lecture

Westminster Cathedral

Laura's education on this trip was her wine class. Scott prefers his education in more bite-sized pieces, like one-time lectures. So it was that he went tonight to Westminster Cathedral to hear the Cardinal's lecture given by the Archbishop of Westminster Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor. The lecture was at the cathedral with probably 1000 people attending. The cardinal discussed his view of the past, present and future of the Roman Catholic church in England. He said the church's mission continues to revolve around two goals: keep the faith and the conversion of all England. That last one seemed a bit big, but the cardinal emphasized that as England and Western Europe grow more secular, it is important to demonstrate that faith and eligion are relevant to contemporary life and not just some esoteric ritual, and he emphasized that the church which is most relevant will be the one which wins the most adherents. He said a lot more which I found very thought provoking but there is too much to summarize here. The Cardinal's Lecture can be found be following this link. At the end of the lecture, the cardinal took questions from the audience. Amazingly, there were no hecklers and no protesters. People were reverent and respectful in a way you just wouldn't experience in the United States, where a cardinal giving a lecture would be accompanied by a lot of security, certainly would not open the floor to questions unless the audience were first carefully prescreened and would absolutely have to deal with protesters. While our freedom of speech is a much cherished right, the British sense of civility does have its advantages.