Britain has become a 'selfish and hedonistic wasteland', says Archbishop's adviser

An influential Catholic has lamented Britain’s descent into a “selfish and hedonistic wasteland”.

Edmund Adamus, one of the Archbishop of Westminster’s advisers, told Catholic news agency Zenit that Britain had become an epicentre of the “culture of death”, hinting at his opposition to its liberal attitude to abortion and euthanasia.

“Whether we like it or not, as British citizens and residents of this country ... Britain, and in particular London, has been and is the geopolitical epicentre of the culture of death,” he said.

He suggested that Roman Catholic views were being challenged far more in Britain than in countries that place heavy restrictions on freedom of religion.

He claimed that Parliament had in the last five decades been the “most permissively anti-life and progressively anti-family and marriage, in essence one of the most anti-Catholic landscapes, culturally speaking – more even than places where Catholics suffer open persecution”.

“Permissive laws advancing the ‘gay’ agenda” were, he contended, one of the ways in which Britain had become a “selfish, hedonistic wasteland”.

The other, he claimed, was British society’s attitude towards women.

Catholics, he said, should “exhibit counter-cultural signals against the selfish, hedonistic wasteland that is the objectification of women for sexual gratification”.

The Catholic Church believes that same-sex attraction is a sin and remains strongly opposed to abortion and assisted suicide.

An Ipsos MORI poll out this week found that just under half the population (49%) agrees that it is a good thing that the Catholic Church holds strong moral views.

The poll, carried out on behalf of Catholic newspaper The Tablet, found, however, that only 41% of people regard the Catholic Church as a force for good.