“War is a road of no return” and “it is a moral responsibility to prevent it”; “military action must be the last option”; “sanctions have not worked and have only impoverished the country”; “the grief of the people killed will be all the greater if they are the result of an armed conflict”. These are the four key points in the declaration on Iraq approved by the Catholic bishops of England and Wales meeting in Leeds from 12 to 15 November. The bishops’ assembly, which lasted a whole week, also touched on other issues of the day, such as the commitment to the new evangelization, ecumenical dialogue, and the future of the nation’s seminaries in response to the crisis of vocations. Lastly, discussion centred on the government’s request that the data of anyone wanting to engage in voluntary service in the Church be checked against the records of the “Criminal Records Bureau” which has the task of vetting the data of personnel and teachers in all English schools to combat paedophilia.
