From time to time our English bishops have been accused of a lack of leadership. In recent days though they have bravely set out far ahead of the religious and voluntary sector pack by wholeheartedly endorsing the key means by which David Cameron hopes to ensure his personal legacy: namely, the “Big Society”. First, in an interview from Lourdes, Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Westminster endorsed the idea. Then Archbishop Peter Smith of Southwark commended the Big Society as the means by which to renew the Catholic justice and peace movement. Subsequently, at their annual gathering, the bishops as a whole – notwithstanding the northern bishops’ reservations about the speed of government cuts – launched a plan to increase Catholic participation in the public sphere. For its name the plan took the core theme of the Prime Minister’s speeches and the title of his only book, Social Responsibility. While Archbishop Nichols had once mistakenly thought Cameron was quoting Catholic social teaching when he used the phrase “common good”, there is now no mistaking who is endorsing whom. But after years of contemptuous treatment under Labour, how will the bishops make an impact for the better?