Being a Catholic in Glasgow is not easy. Historically, Catholics are either of Irish or Highland descent, with an exotic Italian component. All three elements immigrated to the city with nothing, and were , rightly, suspected of working for less than the locals, although little notice has ever been taken of the local employers who welcomed them for working for less. Their religion has traditionally therefore been used as an excuse for hostility , although this situation is now almost 200 years old. There may also be a racial component, Irish and Highlanders being easily lumped together as being different from Scottish Lowlanders. The religious element, despite the almost abandonment of Scottish Protestantism in churchgoing terms , still seems to be the most important. When we moved to a block of flats, our religious affiliation was apparently of importance, in 1995, to at least one of the other tenants, and one which was investigated immediately.
This, obviously, is inexplicable, and one of the great mysteries of life in Scotland. The annual- or more frequent-folk processions celebrating the defeating of Catholic forces in a battle in Ulster, although this was also celebrated by the contemporary Pope plays a small but irritating part in this, and one which the Church of Scotland – and ordinary Protestantism- distances itself from.
Well,Catholics are different. Apparently nowadays red-headed children are persecuted in the playground, They are different, after all. It is now illegal in 2017 to show any kind of discrimination towards immigrants, many of whom, in so many ways, are very different indeed from the indigenous population of West Central Scotland. We assure you that we are wary of anything approaching paranoia , suggesting perhaps that the existing hostility towards Catholics is what the psychologists would call displacement, towards some of our more recent immigrants. Who knows? It is perhaps the greatest mystery of life in Scotland today.
Many Glaswegians live in housing schemes, consisting of tenement buildings of three storeys, entered by a common entry, or ‘close’, and live literally on top of each other. Given the mysterious antipathy towards Catholics which we have mentioned , a normal social life can be maintained, but with difficulty if a preponderance – or even one- of the neighbours shares this antipathy.
At work, the Catholic will find himself an object of curiosity. The days of well-known firms being unwilling to employ Catholics seem to be over. But in the work environment, it is not difficult to imagine being ‘different’ as still a problem , sometimes as mere curiosity, and other times as the mysterious hostility we have mentioned. Why should this exist among fellow workers?
Quite justifiably, in West Central Scotland, given what can nowadays only be called the pretensions of their leaders, like Cardinal O’Brien and the other priests , especially those tried and found guilty of pederasty , Catholics can have a hard row to hoe, both at work and at home in their tenement flats , and on a daily basis, and with no hope of this ever changing .
We have to ask when are the Bishops of Scotland, leaders of their flock , ever going to do something about this?
We are reluctant to suggest that they are reluctant to offend in some way the Vatican Civil Service or Curia . In our humility, we are reluctant to imagine that the possibility of mere earthly promotion within the Church can in any way affect their thinking, however unlikely that this can ever be ,given the general condition of the Church in Scotland. Another Cardinal O’Brien- forget it !
A new and radical approach to bringing Christ and the Eucharist to Scotland , as opposed to sitting and watching the present slow disintegration of Church governance is long overdue.
And yet this week we have yet another priest accused of behaviour unbecoming a priest ,or rather the kind of behaviour which priests claim to personify.
The ordinary Catholic must think of the snide comment of a neighbour passing in the close, or the apparently merely curious query of a workmate, or even the very barbed comment of a workmate.
And having to experience that , or its possibility, every day.