British PM pledges referendum on EU membership

(Vatican Radio) Britain's prime minister said Wednesday he will offer citizens a vote on whether to leave the European Union if his party wins the next election.

Claiming that public disillusionment with the 27-nation EU is “at an all-time high,” David Cameron used a long-awaited speech in central London to say that the terms of Britain's membership in the bloc should be revised and the country's citizens should have a say.

The auxiliary Bishop of Birmingham, William Kenney, spoke with Vatican Radio about the Prime Minister’s remarks. “I’m no fan of referendums at all. I think that questions, particularly these sorts of questions, are far to complicated to be put to a referendum,” he said. “I believe that’s why we have politicians, is that you have people who will try to understand what a problem is, and then having listened of course to ordinary people, the people they represent, that they will then make the decision. So I’m not in favour of a referendum, really, about anything, not just about this.”

He noted that the UK Bishops do not have an official position on Britain’s membership in the EU. “We have no official position about that. We would regard it, I think, as a political matter and therefore not something that we would comment on.” But, he said, “I think many Catholics are quite favourable to this, even though some are not. Mainly because of solidarity, of being with other people.”

Bishop Kenney note the work of the EU in promoting peace among its member states. “I think the big issue, still, is that of peace. The EU has been very successful, within its members, creating peace, and therefore this is something which I’m a believer, that [peace] has to be worked for in every generation. You can’t just take peace as though it’s a given. And part of the way of working for that is actually membership in the European Union.”

Listen to the full interview of Bishop William Kenney with Vatican Radio: