London, 11 November 2023 — His Grace ✠Jerome, Primus of the Old Roman Apostolate, attended the inaugural Academics for Academic Freedom (AFAF) National Conference at City University, London, where leading academics, lawyers, and campaigners addressed the growing threats to free enquiry and freedom of speech in British universities.
Reflecting on Pope Francis’s recent Motu Proprio Ad theologiam promovendam, which called for a “paradigm shift” in theology towards contextual and relational approaches, His Grace warned that this emphasis mirrors a broader academic trend:
“What is now demanded of theology—prioritising context, experience, and emotion over objectivity—echoes a wider academic shift that threatens truth itself. When feelings are given equal or greater weight than reasoned analysis, scholarship is undermined, and free enquiry is replaced by ideology.”
At the conference, speakers highlighted the dangers posed by identity politics and the growing influence of “woke” orthodoxy, which are eroding freedom of expression and open debate in universities.
Keynote addresses were delivered by James Murray, Legal Director at Doyle Clayton and one of the architects of the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act, who explained its provisions and implications, and Baroness Claire Fox, Director of the Academy of Ideas, who chaired a major panel discussion: “What is the way forward for free speech and academic freedom?”
The panel included Dr Bryn Harris (Chief Legal Officer, Free Speech Union), Professor Dennis Hayes (Director, AFAF), Omar Mohamed (co-founder, Speak Easy), and Akua Reindorf KC (Cloisters Chambers). Members from AFAF branches across the UK also shared their experiences and strategies.
A major announcement was also made: 20 May 2024 has been designated the first “International Academic Freedom Day,” commemorating the birth of John Stuart Mill, whose seminal On Liberty (1859) remains a cornerstone text for defenders of freedom. Universities and organisations worldwide are being invited to host lectures, seminars, and debates each year on that date.
His Grace concluded:
“Truth must not be held hostage to sentiment or silenced by ideology. Both theology and academia must recover their proper foundations in reason and reality if they are to serve the common good.”
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