The Pope in Scotland: Church gets ready to face a tough future

Published on Sunday 5 September 2010 16:59

WHILE the Catholic Church does recognise miracles, few expect the visit of Pope Benedict XVI to transform the fortunes of its Scottish outpost.

• Bishop Joseph Devine said the Pope is preaching in difficult times

Bishop Joseph Devine of Motherwell said frankly that he does not expect the impact to be "great". While John Paul II possessed a charisma that boosted Scottish Catholicism for a number of years, Benedict is a more measured character preaching in difficult times.

As Bishop Devine said: "If I can contrast it to 28 years ago, I remember Cardinal Winning saying: 'We will be living off the back of the Pope for years to come.' He was only partly right. We did for about two to three years but the effect was not terribly sustaining, and that was John Paul II. It was a novelty.

"Nobody had ever seen him before and so the impact was enormous. Well, we have known Benedict XVI for a very long time, or at least the clergy have so I would not imagine the impact will be great, I think the visit will be interesting and quite important but I don't anticipate that it will have a long lasting effect. No, I don't think so."

The Catholic Church in Scotland is on the cusp of a revolution. In the next three years, five out of the eight Bishops and Archbishops who make up the Bishops' Conference of Scotland will retire, and a new generation will collect their crooks and shepherd their flock into a most uncertain future.

Thirty years ago Scotland had the youngest bishops conference in Europe, while today it has one of the oldest. At the moment, according to a number of priests, the Church is stuck. "They are well-meaning, but tired old men who are not fit to deal with the problems we will face," said one priest. "So nothing is being done."

There are those within the Catholic church in Scotland who believe a serious rationalisation programme is required, not just the closure of parishes, but of diocese themselves. All eyes are fixed on the current inspection of Ireland's Church which could see the reduction of the number of diocese from 26 to 12.

"If this happens there will be 12 diocese for four to five million Catholics, we currently have eight serving 700,000 Catholics," said another priest.

The current set-up means that the Diocese of Argyll and the Isles serves a Catholic population of 10,383, just twice the number of a single parish in Glasgow, Yet Bishop Devine insists the geographical spread of Scotland makes it essential to retain each diocese. "I don't think we will reduce diocese but parishes will certainly be drastically reduced in the future."

Among those charged with steering the Church through the next few decades will be Bishop Philip Tartaglia, who, at 59, has at least 16 years before retirement, and is whispered as a potential successor to Mario Conti, as the next Archbishop of Glasgow.

Sitting in the bright, modern office at his diocese in Paisley he is hoping for a bright, sunny day for Pope Benedict XVI and that those who attend will leave the park with joy in their heart.

"Let me tell you that with this Pope there will be no lack of insightful, encouraging and challenging reflections on the Christian message and on the condition of humanity today, and I think this will help Catholics and other Christians and people of faith and goodwill understand better the period of history they are living in, when faith is not the default position of society, when parliament enacts laws which stand Christian conviction on its head, when fundamental Catholic teaching on the sanctity of human life and on the nature of marriage are not just rejected but actually considered subversive in our liberal society.

"When the State is showing less and less respect for religious belief, and when the Church is no longer at the top table with the good and the great of this nation."

Although he is at pains to stress the common points that Church and State share, there are differences and it is these that he thinks will widen over the next few decades.

He has concerns about how the State is infringing on Catholic beliefs, and has even thought about contacting the police for guidance on whether he and his priests could be prosecuted for preaching fundamental Catholic teaching on homosexuality.

When asked if he could see a future in which priests, bishops and cardinals could be prosecuted for their beliefs he said: "I don't know - I have been curious about that. I have thought about writing to a Chief Constable and saying "if I address this in my sermon will you come after me?" I have thought about it. I have thought: 'Is this where we are coming to?. Maybe it is, but I hope not, I hope some kind of common sense will prevail where the Church is allowed the freedom to say what it must.

"Homosexuality is only one issue. Will we have a fight on our hands to keep Catholic schools? Will we have a fight on our hands to teach Catholic religion in schools? We already had a fight about adoption agencies, but the gay thing has brought all of this to a (head).

He does, however, believe that the Catholic Church has a strong role to play in Scotland's future as it has done in its past. "A glance at history will confirm that the Church has always been an important presence in Scotland and an important, even essential, dimension of Scottish nationhood, and today Catholics, Christians and other people of faith make up a large part of the population."The Catholic Church and the Catholic community are not going anywhere. We are here. We are part of Scotland's past and present. We have every intention of being part of Scotland's future. That said, the Catholic Church does not herself have a plan for Scotland's future. The Catholic Church must be true to Jesus Christ. The Catholic Church may even be repudiated entirely by Scottish society. I hope not, but it's possible. It has happened before! That may well be a tragedy but in another way it doesn't really matter, if the Church remains true to Jesus Christ and to her own God-given reality.

"We would like to help shape Scotland's future, but our first priority is Jesus Christ and the Word of God. From that basis, the Catholic Church must be a force for good, for the true dignity of humanity, for justice and for the common good of society. If the Church does that in faithfulness to Christ and to his Gospel, the Catholic Church will certainly play a part in Scotland's future.

"The Church and the Catholic community will always seek good relations with the Scottish government and with the institutions of Scottish life, but its place in Scotland's future will be determined not by those things, but by her faithfulness to Jesus Christ. My hope is that the Pope's visit will deepen that faithfulness in the Catholic community."

So what will the Catholic Church resemble in 30 years time? According to Cardinal Keith O'Brien it should not necessarily be respectable: "A priest was asked what the Catholic Church would be like in 30 years time and he said small but respectable. I would not like the Catholic Church to be small and respectable in decades to come. I would like to think it would be stronger, because of the increasing faith of the young people, stronger and, frankly, not always respectable. I would like Catholics to be proud and to stand up and fight our corner. I'm not always respectable. I've been called Cardinal Controversy and I don't mind that at all as I think that is what I have got to be. St Paul said preach the Gospel in season and out of season. Sometimes I speak out and it is not always welcome, and I would like to think that more Catholics and Christians would be prepared to do that in years to come.

"There is a great role for the lay faithful and I would like to see that increasing, not just in the pulpit but in the legal, medical professions etc. People standing up and being counted if the need arises, if they see abuses in their professions such as the laws being passed in 50 years time or medical research in 50 years time. Yes, the Catholic Community being a stronger community and ever more ready to profess their Christian faith."