Salmond calls summit as he tries to defuse deepening row with Church

Published on Wednesday 5 October 2011 23:59

FIRST Minister Alex Salmond is due to host crunch talks with one of Scotland’s most senior bishops tomorrow, amid growing concerns the SNP is losing the confidence of the country’s Catholic leadership over its controversial stance on anti-sectarianism and gay marriage.

Mr Salmond will meet the Bishop of Paisley Philip Tartaglia at the First Minister’s official Edinburgh residence, Bute House, after the cleric accused the SNP of provoking a “growing apprehension and disappointment” among Catholics, with a series of “ill-advised” policies, such as anti-bigotry legislation and plans to allow a Holyrood vote on same-sex marriages.

The meeting comes as it emerged the strongly worded attack by the bishop was “widely shared” by senior Scottish clerics from the Church.

The Scotsman has learned that other bishops in Scotland contacted Bishop Tartaglia in support, after the senior cleric wrote to Mr Salmond about the Catholic community’s growing concerns over parts of the SNP’s legislative programme.

His intervention led to a phone call between him and Mr Salmond, who invited the bishop to Bute House, amid a grave warning that the SNP was at risk of “infuriating” Catholic voters.

Senior SNP MSP Christine Grahame dismissed suggestions her party would suffer electorally because of the Scottish Government’s stance, claiming that a “trail of misinformation” had gripped part of the debate about issues such as the Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications Bill.

Bishop Tartaglia is set to raise the Catholic Church’s concerns about the Scottish Government’s decision to hold a consultation on same-sex marriages, as well as the anti-bigotry legislation, which the cleric has described as a “distraction” from the real nature of sectarianism in Scotland.

Peter Kearney, the Scottish Catholic media director, said Bishop Tartaglia would also demand a more regular publication of statistics about sectarian-fuelled crime, as well as the start of an “ongoing dialogue” between the SNP government and the Church.

Mr Kearney went on to say that the views in the letter sent by the bishop to Mr Salmond, attacking the proposed anti-sectarianism legislation and same-sex marriage, had been “widely conveyed” to Bishop Tartaglia by other senior figures in the Catholic Church.

He said: “The Bishop of Paisley wrote the letter in a personal capacity, and he definitely expressed concerns that are widely shared in the Church. We’re hoping for a productive meeting tomorrow.

“He’s representing a point of view that has been widely conveyed to him and others. His stance has been endorsed by other bishops, who share his concerns. One issue that has come up in the course of these discussions is the question of statistics published about sectarianism. A statement from the government said that it would provide analysis of sectarian crime.

“But all we have is some figure from 2004-5 and some crime figures for 2010. There is a big gap in the figures, which provide a snapshot.

“We need an overall analysis to give a picture of the issue. We need to measure the problem we are trying to tackle.

“The reality is that we can’t possibly cover all the concerns in the course of a single meeting, but our key hope is that this meeting is the beginning of a process of dialogue.”

Labour MSP Michael McMahon, a practising Catholic, suggested the SNP was taking Catholic voters for granted.

He said: “I think that many in the Catholic community are discovering what others have also discovered in recent years – that Alex Salmond makes a lot of promises to a lot of people to get into power, and then forgets when he gets there.”

The Scottish Government said that next month it would “publish the analysis of religious aggravation charges for the most recent year, 2010-11”.

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  THE Bishop of Paisley has warned Alex Salmond that his “ill-advised” attempts to deal with sectarianism and his stance on gay marriage could lead to him losing the confidence of the Catholic Church.

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