Offer refused

A TOTAL of 98 historians have protested against plans to dismantle the internationally important Scottish Catholic Archives in Edinburgh. Mr Peter Kearney of the Scottish Catholic Media Office (Letters, 2 June) suggests that protesting scholars have “ulterior motives” .

Your readers will form their own views as to the respective motives of professional historians, who regularly use the archival material, and those of a professional spin-doctor.

More troubling than Mr Kearney’s slur on these scholars’ integrity, however, is his misrepresentation of the facts.

“Sadly,” he laments, “None of those who have rushed into print… have made any effort whatsoever to offer funding or fundraising expertise to the Church.”

This is simply untrue. As a Council Member of the Scottish Catholic Historical Association I wrote to Archbishop Conti in May 2008 to dissuade him from dismantling the archives. In this letter, copies of which were sent to all the Scottish Catholic bishops, I indicated that in my own small department in the University of Glasgow we had recently raised, and were still raising, hundreds of thousands of pounds for various research projects.

I concluded by assuring Archbishop Conti that “members of the Council would be glad to offer their experience to help raise whatever funds are needed”. Our offer was refused, courteously but firmly.

GILBERT MÁRKUS

School of Humanities

University of Glasgow