Cardinal Hinsley

Extract

The death of Cardinal Hinsley brings a sense of grievous loss to innumerable men and women outside his own flock. His championship of right, his outspokenness, his love of England, his pity for the suffering, all inspired by a deep religious faith, combined to make a remarkable impression on the public mind. A story he told me of his first meeting with Mr. Churchill throws a flood of light on the bonds which bound him to his fellow countrymen. It was just after the fall of France, when there was a widespread belief that anything might happen. ‘I am glad we’re alone,’ he said to the Prime Minister, ‘and have not to rely on France.’ ‘Why? ‘asked Mr. Churchill, much surprised. He replied, ‘Englishmen fight best when they have got their backs to the wall.’ It was very fitting that when the Cardinal died, nearly three years later, Mr. Churchill should express his deep sympathy with English Roman Catholics ‘in the loss of a leader of character and courage, a great patriot, and a true lover of justice and freedom.’

There is another campaign in the leadership of which the Cardinal’s death will be most keenly felt. It is the campaign for a regeneration of Britain and Europe and a building up of a new social, economic and political system on just and moral foundations. Staunch Roman Catholic though he was, he saw that in a world so divided as our own the gathering of all forces looking in the same direction was indispensable for such a purpose. Accordingly, in August, 1940, profoundly stirred by the moral collapse which caused France’s down fall, he inaugurated the movement of ‘The Sword of the Spirit ‘to ‘deal with the issues raised by the present war.’