Welfare reforms a 'disgrace', says UK's most senior Catholic

Source: The Guardian

Britain's most senior Catholic cleric has described the coalition's welfare reforms as a "disgrace" and said they have removed even the most basic safety net for those threatened by poverty and left society's most vulnerable facing "hunger and destitution".

Cardinal-designate Vincent Nichols, the Archbishop of Westminster, attacked the reforms led by Iain Duncan Smith. The work and pensions secretary is a practising Catholic. …

…" I think what is happening is two things: one is that the basic safety net that was there to guarantee that people would not be left in hunger or in destitution has actually been torn apart.

"It no longer exists and that is a real, real dramatic crisis. And the second is that, in this context, the administration of social assistance, I am told, has become more and more punitive."


Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/15/welfare-reform-disgrace-archbishop-westminster

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Vincent Nichols is the Pope's' Cardinal designate.

I am a little uncomfortable with a Catholic Church cleric calling out a 'Practising Catholic' on policy. Then again, there was Cardinal Raymond Burke who denounced Kerry and Pelosi as bad Catholics “in manifest grave sin” who should avoid presenting themselves for Communion

Francis took that sweep off the Congregation for Bishops, the Church body esponsible for deciding who’s eligible to rise to the rank of Bishop.http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2013/12/18/pope-francis-demotes-cardinal-who-denied-john-kerry-communion/

But when is a US Cardinal going to say something about Unemployment Insurance at a critical juncture?