BACK TO BIGOTRY

The Tories have picked an appalling candidate
The Conservative Party in Slough has just made a dreadful mistake in selecting Adrian Hilton, a former teacher of “religious studies”, as its prospective parliamentary candidate. Mr Hilton has a degree in theology, though his website does not tell us from where. Judging by the views he expressed in an article in The Spectator, it might as well be from Bob Jones University, the virulently anti-Catholic institution in America whose alumni include the Rev Ian Paisley.
In a piece headed “Render Unto The Pope”, Mr Hilton insists that the European Union is a conspiracy to subject England to a “Catholic Caesar” – the Pope. The Roman Church, he tells us, is founded on a political dogma claiming that the Pope is “supreme ruler of the world”. The EU is the political wing of the revived Roman Empire of the Catholic Church, and that is why, says Mr Hilton, Pope John Paul has “beatified Alcide De Gasperi, Robert Schuman and Konrad Adenauer”. In fact, none of these founding fathers of the Common Market has been beatified; but accuracy has never been the hallmark of the conspiracy theorist.
What is so infuriating about these half-baked views, reeking of centuries-old prejudice, is that they play into the hands of those Catholics who are trying to associate opposition to the single currency or the proposed European Constitution with Protestant Little-Englanders. Far too many senior Catholic clergymen naïvely endorse every initiative emanating from Brussels, and this despite mounting evidence that – pace Mr Hilton – many EU politicians and functionaries are poisonously anti-Catholic.
We do not know whether the Slough Tories were aware of Mr Hilton’s anti-Papist track record when they adopted him as candidate for the forthcoming general election; if they were, shame on them. If, as seems more likely, they were not, then they should begin moves to deselect him as soon as possible.
The Catholic Herald does not normally tell its readers how to vote; we will certainly not endorse a political party in the election. But we have no hesitation in saying that no Catholic should cast a ballot for Adrian Hilton. To do so would be an insult to the faith of our fathers.