Welby: EU is man’s greatest achievement since Romans!
THE European Union is mankind’s greatest achievement since the fall of the Roman Empire, the Archbishop of Canterbury said yesterday.
In an extraordinary intervention, Justin Welby said the EU had delivered ‘hope for all its people’ – and suggested Brexit was driven by ‘fear of the other’.
In an address to the Assembly of the Conference of European Churches in Serbia, he said: ‘The EU has been the greatest dream realised for human beings since the fall of the Western Roman Empire.
‘It has brought peace, prosperity, compassion for the poor and weak, purpose for the aspirational and hope for all its people. It has always been challenged and always will. Brexit is only one of a number of challenges that Europe is facing and may well not be the most serious.’
The Archbishop has previously revealed he backed Remain at the referendum, but has been careful in the past to tone down his criticism of Brexit.
Last night his comments sparked an angry reaction from Eurosceptics.
Tory MP Nigel Evans said: ‘I think the Greek, Spanish and Italian young unemployed might care to differ – as clearly did the majority of UK citizens at the referendum. Most Church of England parishioners tend to be older, who were the ones who most voted leave. I think the Archbishop has a widely distorted view if he doesn’t see this wasteful expensive and dictatorial protectionist racket for what it is.’
The Archbishop also faced mockery for suggesting the EU was the greatest achievement of the past 1,500 years.
Independent MEP Steven Woolfe said: ‘In Welby’s world the EU is a greater achieve ment than the emancipation of slavery, universal suffrage, landing on the moon, Magna Carta, parliamentary democracy, defeating Nazism, communism and fascism or advances in antibiotics and heart transplants.’
Tory MP Andrew Bridgen added: ‘His comments are given that he’s the head of the Church of England. His position wouldn’t exist if the church hadn’t split from Europe many centuries ago.’
In the past, the Archbishop has been more even-handed in his statements on Brexit. He has previously warned that Brexit may become ‘a catalyst of British introspection, xenophobia, and selfpity’. But he has also criticised the EU, citing ‘centralisation, corruption, and bureaucracy’, and describing Greece as ‘the biggest debtors’ prison in European history’.
The Archbishop told the assembly he expected the EU to survive Brexit, but warned that Europe was in a ‘fragile phase’.
He said: ‘Europe is not in danger of falling. And there is no sense in which I suggest that Brexit or other crises currently around will derail the European Union or bring about the downfall of Europe. To suggest that would be akin to the old English saying that when there is fog in the Channel then the continent is cut off.’
The Archbishop also suggested that Brexit had been driven by fear. He said people were ‘gripped by fear of the other’ and suggested the Church had a role to play when ‘those fears are played on and manipulated by political leaders’.
Christopher Hill, a former Bishop of Guildford, went further, saying: ‘Then there is the rise of Euroscepticism, the flames of which are fanned by scare stories about migration and refugees, most dramatically in the UK (especially England) but also elsewhere.’
‘A widely distorted view’
FORGET the spread of Christianity to more than 2billion worshippers worldwide. Never mind the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, the abolition of slavery, the eradication of smallpox and the huge strides towards relieving global poverty.
In the flabbergasting words of the Archbishop of Canterbury, as reported by the Church Times, the ‘greatest dream realised for human beings since the fall of the Western Roman Empire’ has been… wait for it… the European Union!
At a conference in Serbia, Justin Welby apparently went on to claim that the EU had brought ‘peace, prosperity, compassion for the poor and weak, purpose for the aspirational and hope for all its people’.
Can this be the same, statist bureaucracy which has thrown half a generation out of work in southern Europe, crushing the hopes and aspirations of millions through its ruthless imposition of the euro?
Is he thinking of the same, anti-democratic Brussels which has inflamed extremism and violence by imposing mass migration on countless unwilling voters?
Leave aside yesterday’s report that the outlook for the eurozone has ‘darkened dramatically’, while Britain’s are looking up.
By his latest descent into the political arena, Mr Welby insults Brexit-supporting churchgoers who want only the best for their country, children and grandchildren.
If he wishes to stop the pews emptying, he should preach less about politics – and more about God.