Letter: Assessing the value of faith in our society

I couldn't disagree more with Tom Gallagher's intemperate criticism of Cardinal Keith O'Brien's performance in his role as at least titular leader of Scotland's Roman Catholics (Comment, 14 September).

While much of Professor Gallagher's dissatisfaction with the cardinal is focused on the latter's intervention in support of the Scottish Government's compassionate release of al-Megrahi - a supposedly purely secular issue - he also makes the general point that the cardinal is too willing "to enter dialogue with a secular state rather than confront it" - in the manner of his predecessor, the late Cardinal Tom Winning.

But, as even the professor himself is forced to concede, Cardinal Winning, for all his sterling merits, totally failed - in his 27 years as Glasgow's archbishop - to stem the tide of secularism in Scottish society, so that it seems to me to be perfectly legitimate to question the evangelical effectiveness of his "outspoken" approach to that task.

I would point out, moreover, that explicit papal approval of this precise evangelical strategy of entering into dialogue with "non-Catholic" and secular ideologies was contained in Pope John XXIII's 1963 encyclical, Pacem in Terris, recommending dialogue not just between the various branches of the Christian faith, but between Catholic Christianity and avowedly atheistic Communism, hitherto consistently anathmatised by previous popes.

Ian O Bayne

Clarence Drive

Glasgow

In diplomatic as well as historical terms it was right for First Minister Alex Salmond to say that without the Church there would not be a Scotland as a country in its own right today (your report, 15 September).

Joan McAlpine's reflections (Comment, 15 September) on how the church intervened in medieval times to ensure some semblance of sovereignty for the state reinforced this view. In the interest of balance, however, some points must be added

The Catholic Church of the middle ages may have had its own interests, rather than those of the Scottish people, at heart. Scotland was shaped by the violent vigour of the Reformation years as it was by the efforts of Robert the Bruce and William Wallace and those bishops sympathetic to their cause. The right to dissent, the promotion of intellectual inquiry, limitations to the power of the state, the primacy of individual liberty were all achieved in the face of church hostility.

These things, along with the works of the philosophers of the Enlightenment, have done a lot to forge the Scottish character - arguably, a lot more than the worthy verbiage of the Declaration of Arbroath and other documents of that era.

The real significance of Pope Benedict's visit ought to be twofold: to give individual Catholics a sense of pride in their own faith and to try promote a bit more tolerance among the different varieties of the Christian faith. There is no point asserting that one faith has played the key role in the development of Scotland.More insight is needed to help our children understand why the country is what it is today. The visit may take that process a stage further. It should never be used to claim one faith throughout history has moulded the destiny of a people.

Bob Taylor

Shiel Court

Glenrothes, Fife

Your editorial (14 September) on the Pope's visit contained the statement: "It may also prompt among non-believers a reminder that the age of science and reason has not made us any better people." I might have expected to see a statement like this in the pages of The Tablet, but in a publication purporting to be a serious newspaper?

Is The Scotsman really arguing that we are not better people for being able to effectively treat our sick and infirm instead of simply praying for them?

Do you really believe that it is a bad thing for us to think critically for ourselves rather than dogmatically follow Church doctrine?

Robert Miller

Bracken Avenue

Falkirk

When I saw the list of road closures and parking restrictions for the Pope's visit to Edinburgh (your report, 15 September), I thought that Winston Churchill could not have put it better: "Never in the field of human endeavour has someone who means so little to so many caused so much disruption."

Alison Halley

Newbattle Abbey Crescent

Dalkeith, Midlothian