One of Britainâ??s leading theologians has broken ranks with the ecumenical establishment by calling for Catholics to convert non-Catholics. Fr Aidan Nichols, the English theologian most closely associated with the thinking of Benedict XVI, has appealed for England to be â??re-madeâ?? as a Catholic country.
He set out his radical and comprehensive programme for Catholic renewal in a new book entitled The Realm: An Unfashionable Essay on the Conversion of England, published by Family Publications.
In his preface he says that Catholic Christianity should be put forward â??not as an occupation for individuals in their solitude but as a form for the public life of society in its overall integrityâ??. He admits that the conversion of England is â??an absolutely colossal agendaâ??, adding: â??It can only be brought into being, so far as it depends on us to do so, by a coordinated strategy for recreating a full-blooded catholicity with the power to… transform a culture in all its principal dimensions.
Fr Aidan Nichols’s plan for renewal:
Firmer doctrine in our teaching and preaching
Re-enchant the liturgy
Recover the insights of metaphysics
Renew Christian political thought
Revive family life
Resacralise art and architecture
Put a new emphasis on monastic life
Strengthen pro-life rhetoric
Recover a Catholic reading of the Bible
Catholic Herald Convert England to Catholicism
On the articles page at Anglican Use, see Nichols ‘Anglican Uniatism’ (largePDF)
