Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, the Archbishop of Westminster, urged the Polish community to do more to learn English and integrate into local parishes, claiming the Catholic Church in the UK was in danger of dividing along ethnic lines as the number of Polish-speaking churches rose.
And the response of Polish community representatives?
Leading Polish community figures said they felt “violated” and “spiritually raped” by his words and called for talks on the issue.
The Telegraph, Catholic leader claims Poles could split Church
Now, Poles new to the UK may argue there’s no requirement for them to speak English and join local Catholic churches; that there’s no need for them to do that; that it’s not advisable for them; that they are trying because it would be a good idea but it’s difficult. But to describe the Cardinal’s suggestion in the language of a sexual attack - ‘violated’, ‘raped’ - is overheated, histrionic and fails entirely to get to grips with the argument.
I do hope that the ‘community leaders’ of Polish Catholics won’t turn out to be like the community leaders of the Muslim population of Britain. Self-appointed, self-serving and unrepresentative.
