Michael Kelly: Charitable acts are the true badge of honour

If the Church were to judge believers by their actions then perhaps faith would attract more followers, writes Michael Kelly

I was standing staring into space at Uddingston Cross waiting for my bus when another man in the queue spoke to me. “I wouldn’t hold out any hope of getting a job there,” he said, nodding across to the Tunnock factory. “They’ll not have the likes of us,” he went on pointing to the little Sacred Heart badge I had on my school blazer.

I have no idea what the employment practices of Scotland’s favourite teacake makers were back in the 1950s. What shocked me was that this stranger could assume some identity with me as a result of an emblem. As soon as he had gone I took it off and have never worn a badge again.

So I will not be accepting Cardinal O’Brien’s invitation to wear a cross to proclaim my Christianity. I wear none of the ties of my three Almae Matres. I sport my Celtic scarf only inside the ground and my golf tie goes on only when I am on my way to the clubhouse. My Labour Party card remains hidden in my wallet and there is no AA badge on my car. Minor examples, maybe, but they do show the lengths many people go to in order to distinguish themselves from the common herd.

They are relatively harmless in themselves. However, in the multi-cultural, multi-ethnic society that has been forced upon us such declaratory devices are more divisive than ever when it comes to membership of more powerful organisations. Witness the controversy when France decided, in line with its secular tradition, to ban the veil in public places. Invasion of human rights or egalité?

If we are to live together in tolerance, if not accord, surely policy must be to eliminate those differences from everyday life? There are better, less disruptive ways of promoting belief. For the ordinary Christian, in particular, it is surely by example rather than proclamation that the values of the faith are to be promulgated. Conformity in small things convinces. Badged adherence provokes suspicion and resistance.

The Catholic voice is at its strongest when its leaders are prepared to speak out and give a lead on moral issues. And Catholic cardinals in Scotland have been proudly willing to do that in defiance of political correctness – Winning on abortion, O’Brien on same sex marriage. The Pope, in his Easter message put his finger on the confusion we see today over many moral issues – the difficulty in telling good from evil because of the loss of objective standards. Relativism rules: people follow their hunches and their selfish interests.

Rather than try to accommodate these views Church leaders need to be even stronger in the face of this growing indifference to a general moral code of behaviour. In this respect the Catholic Church is again confronted with a dilemma – which it might regard as an opportunity – to reinforce its stand in favour of traditional values on the meaning of marriage. It has resisted the changes being touted by the SNP government to allow marriage between couple of the same sex.

However, it has a practical problem to resolve within its own flock. With an apparent increase in the number of Catholics leading gay lifestyles which they consider no barrier to the practice of their religion, the Church has to decide how they are treated in terms of the sacraments and as to how they are eventually commended to heaven.

How does the Church propose to deal with those gay Catholics who enter into a civil partnership or, if the law is changed, decide to get married? For example, a Requiem Mass would seem to be denied to them by Canon 1184 of the Code of Canon Law which refers, among other things, to “other manifest sinners to whom a Church funeral could not be granted”.

Enforcing such a decree would seem to be harsh and uncaring, particularly to bereaved relatives. Yet if the Church is to avoid falling in to the trap that the Pope described and to distinguish clearly between good and evil how can it condone such behaviour through its last rites? You are identified as a Catholic by the way you lead your life. Being born into a Catholic home or attending a Catholic school is not sufficient which is why I always laugh when I hear Mo Johnston referred to as “the first Catholic to play for Rangers”. I do not know anything of the beliefs or practices of the former star forward. But I suspect that Rome is not the only Church he ever wanted to belong to.

So for consistency this question of who are practising Catholics and entitled to the privileges of membership and who are not, because of the gay lifestyle, must be addressed. A way may be found through the changed treatment of those who commit suicide. Hitherto, they were denied Christian burial. Now it is accepted that anyone who proceeds with self-destruction must have done so while the balance of their mind was disturbed and so no sin was incurred. There are certain Catholic thinkers who want to extend this train of thought to homosexuals and lesbians. But to those equal members of our society it sounds outrageously insulting and degrading.

Perhaps a better route is through the application of Christian charity – after all the greatest of the virtues.

The Catholic philosophy of loving the sinner while hating the sin may well be the best guidance to follow though again gay people will regard that as demeaning. Rigidly or flexibly, however the Church deals with it is likely to send out the mixed messages the Pope wants to avoid.

This is one of a series of very difficult issues the Church must address. Hitherto it dealt with those who rejected its teaching on contraception by ignoring the problem. With abortion that has been less easy to do.

The honest and resolute way forward is to renew clearly and repeatedly what, in the modern world, it regards as a Christian lifestyle. Many people, including myself, may not like the template and that might lead to a smaller number of adherents. But at least they would all have accepted the rules of the club.