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
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