Religious people in a secular Britain must be allowed to contribute to contemporary debates but should not be 
given special treatment, the head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales has said.
Archbishop Vincent Nichols (pictured) declared that faith groups must be free to “speak from their traditions”, and that their involvement in national debates “enriches democracy”.
Archbishop Nichols warned that if Britain stopped respecting a wide range of opinions, society would descend into a situation where we become “either dominators or dominated”, while the abandonment of Christian teachings puts us on “shifting sands”.
He argued that religion helps people come together as a group without losing their individual identity.
His comments on society, in a lecture delivered this week at the Thomas More Institute in Hampstead, echoed remarks made by Pope Benedict during his historic visit to Britain last year when he urged the faithful not to be silenced by “aggressive secularism”.
Archbishop Nichols noted that the reactions to the Pope’s visit “suggest that new opportunities may be emerging”.
“Slowly a new place for religious belief in the public square is being marked out, not with a power or desire to impose religious beliefs or their consequences, but with the recognition that a mature and enlightened public square should reflect the beliefs of those who share its space, in dialogue with one another and with secular protagonists, to the enrichment of all,” he said.
“The secular public square should not be faith-blind but faith-sensitive, welcoming and testing reasoned argument.
“Religious voices should not expect special privilege because they are religious, but nor should they be excluded either.
“And whilst public authorities will rightly seek to justify their actions by reference to reasons which all can accept, in contributing to public debate religious and faith voices should be free to speak from their traditions as well as to adduce reasons in their support.
“Encouraging their willing and full participation enriches democracy and at the same time facilitates the necessary dialogue between the world of secular rationality and the world of faith.”
In a further reference to the risk of abandoning traditional religious teachings, he said: “The rejection of the wisdom and foundations of the past – as with the place of Christianity in Western culture – does not give us unrestricted freedom to do what we like now, but puts us in danger of building on shifting sands which have not been tested for their stability or their capacity to bear the weight of our culture.”
The Archbishop went on to say that one of the most urgent tasks in the world today is “exploring the reality of the diversity of human living”.
“Give up on respect for diversity, and we are impoverished and eventually become either dominators or dominated.”
He described the importance of faith as a basis for community, and a defence against loneliness, pointing out that the church is one of the few places where “people from all different classes” sit next to each other “and assume both an equality and a mutual identity”.