David Cameron has told Pope Benedict XVI in a powerful farewell speech that his visit had made Britain “sit up and think”.
The Prime Minister said to the Pope: “You have spoken to a nation of six million Catholics, but you have been heard by a nation of over 60 million citizens.”
He cited the Pope’s speech in Westminster Hall on Friday, saying that “faith is not a problem for legislators to solve but rather a vital part of our national conversation”.
He said the Pope’s lesson for Britons had been “to follow our conscience, to ask not what are my entitlements, but what are my responsibilities; to ask not what we can do for ourselves, but what we can do for others”.
I worry that the elite of our nation, having driven the church to the margins whilst they tinkered with the fabric of society, are now reaching out to them again just when they need someone to take responsibility for the poor who can no longer rely on state benefits. Doubtless Dave’s big society with the church at the centre will require funding from the pews….