The first of a series of Catholic-Humanist dialogues took place last
week in London between the Central London Humanist Group, which was part
of the Protest the Pope coalition, and Catholic Voices, which was
created to put the Church’s case during the papal visit.
Some 14 Humanists and eight members of the Catholic Voices speakers’
team met in a room in London for two hours of discussions on contentious
issues.
Catholic Voices patron Fr Christopher Jamison, OSB and its
coordinators, Austen Ivereigh and Jack Valero, put the Church’s case on
Aids/condoms, faith schools, and same-sex adoption.
Austen Ivereigh is
a Catholic journalist and commentator who writes regularly for the Guardian CiF section and Our Sunday Visitor, and is European correspondent for America magazine in New York.
His latest book is Faithful Citizens: a practical guide to Catholic Social Teaching and community organising.
Christopher Jamison OSB is a Benedictine monk and former Abbot of Worth
Abbey in West Sussex, England. He became well known through the BBC TV
series The Monastery.
A frank exchange of views then took place, aiming at clarifying areas of disagreement.
Among the humanists present was Alan Palmer, chair of the Central
London Humanist Group; Josh Kutchinsky, a British Humanist Association
trustee; and Paul Sims, news editor of New Humanist magazine.
One
member of the humanist team and one member of the Catholic team were
delegated to summarise the views of the other side, in order to ensure
that both sides listened carefully to each other’s views. In keeping
with the spirit of friendship, the group then enjoyed further
discussions in a pub!
The meeting was agreed following the well-attended and contentious
Conway Hall debate in September, organised by the British Humanist
Association. Following this, both the Central London Humanists and
Catholic Voices were keen to organise a smaller, more respectful
meeting.
Further meetings are now being planned.
Jack Valero said, “This has been an unexpected fruit of the papal
visit – sitting round the table with people who were protesting the Pope
to clarify where we agree and disagree. The atmosphere was respectful
and attentive, but there was no attempt to suppress real differences.
Everyone felt afterwards that they had learned from the experience.”
Austen Ivereigh said, “We are currently making plans to extend and
expand the Catholic Voices project. After Tuesday night we think that
this kind of exchange should be part of what we do in the future.”
SIC: CIN/IE