Recently I read that Pope Francis had commended a book by the theologian Fr John Navone SJ, entitled A Theology of Failure. Those of us who argued that Catholics should not support the leave campaign in the EU Referendum (and I don’t know of any breakdown of how Catholics voted) ought to get the book.
In things I have written since January I have confined myself to theology, and to the demands of Catholic social teaching in particular, and I will do so now. I argued that the Church understands solidarity so as to support greater unity and integration in Europe, to break down barriers and walls; that we be sceptical about claims made about national sovereignty; and that Catholic teaching about migration and refugees must distance us from the language and (apparently successful) approach to this issue from the leave campaign. These three arguments, which in my judgment compelled Catholics to reject the leave campaign, have lost none of their force or validity since last Thursday – Catholic teaching is not like that. Indeed, the rise in racist incidents since the vote, much of it directed against Catholics, makes my third argument much stronger. There is a lot of evil around, real moral evil.
