MANCHESTER (CNS): Bishop Philip Egan of Portsmouth, the United Kingdom (UK), expressed relief at the result of the December 12 general elections because he had been “horrified” by manifesto promises made by the losing parties to strip criminal sanctions from the abortion law so that the procedure was available on demand, however he added that he was “not particularly enthused” by the Conservative Party agenda.
The Conservative Party of prime minister, Boris Johnson, gained 47 seats, the largest increase since Margaret Thatcher won a third term in 1987, giving him a Commons majority of 80 members of Parliament.
The opposition Labour Party suffered its worst defeat since 1935, while the Liberal Democrats, the third-largest party, gained only 11 seats.
Bishop Egan noted that the two losing parties had “an anti-life agenda, particularly on abortion, so I am delighted that direction has been stopped.”
However, the bishop said he had concerns about social care of the most needy and noted that the “false anthropologies” underpinning the radical social policies of the other parties also were operative within the Conservative Party.
“You have got to be vigilant, because things are coming through the education authorities, the health service and the social services,” Bishop Egan said. “What was difficult was that the other parties had tuned into those ideologies and wanted to further them more.”
In a statement on December Vincent Cardinal Nichols of Westminster, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, noted that the recent political climate had been “toxic, dominated by blame.”
The cardinal said, “We have to put that behind us, look each other in the eye and see the good in the other. As we approach Christmas, it is the birth of Christ, the embodiment of God’s goodness that we celebrate. It is that streak of goodness written in every person that we have to see and rediscover. Concentrating on the good in every person is the fresh start we should seek.”
The election was the third in five years and was called by Johnson after rival parties refused to support his bill to deliver Brexit and take the UK out of the European Union following the referendum of 2016.
On December 13 Johnson described his victory as a “political earthquake” that had given him the mandate he needed to push Brexit through without relying on help from any political rivals.
The Liberal Democratic Party also deselected one of its candidates, Robert Flello, a Catholic opposed to same-sex marriage and abortion, because of his”values. Flello announced on his website on December 11 that he is suing the party for religious discrimination.
The Conservative Party was silent about abortion in its election manifesto, yet it promised to act against the persecution of Christians overseas.
Following the publication of the manifestos, the bishops of England, Wales and Scotland put the right-to-life at the top of a list of issues they wanted Catholics to raise with candidates.
