The archbishop of Westminster today claimed secularists were "just as dogmatic as the worst religious believer and sometimes more stridently so".

The Most Rev Vincent Nichols, who is the most senior Catholic in England and Wales, said it was time for believers and non-believers to work together and construct a society in which "reasoned and respectful dialogue" was more common.

He told Radio 4's Sunday programme: "Public life is not a neutral place.Everybody comes with their set of values and religion has just as much right to be there as anybody else.

"A secularist is just as dogmatic as the worst religious believer and sometime they are more stridently so."The archbishop may well have been referring to events of the previous decade, which has been a difficult one for faith communities and their leaders.Secularist and atheists have become more organised and assertive in their opposition to religious influence in public life. At times, however, the interaction between believers and non-believers has descended into a shouting match with each side claiming the other is wrong.Nichols said that genuine dialogue could only happen if the nature and tone of the conversation changed.

"That means getting away from the sound-bites and getting away from the discussion that is always centred around oppositional conflict."

In the same interview, he also talked about the continuing revelations from the Irish Republic about paedophilia and the collusion among church officials to disguise it.

Nichols said something positive could be drawn from the latest events in Ireland, where four bishops resigned over their failure to deal with allegations in the archdiocese of Dublin.

He said: "The Catholic Church always traditionally understood itself to be a church of sinners, this is very plain.

"Appealing to the good that is done in the church is important but it doesn't take this sense of shame away.

"Shame is part of our human condition, when we see that we have to live our shame and guilt in public that can purify faith and, as it were, strip away some of the pomposity that can easily gather round the roles of clerics and others in the church."For years Nichols led efforts to tackle clerical sex abuse in England and Wales only to cause outrage last May just before his installation as archbishop of Westminster for saying it took courage for religious orders and clergy to face their past.