Once again we have a controversial statement about Cardinal O’Brien from Archbishop Cushley of St Andrews and Edinburgh, this time on local television. He did not of course introduce the subject of Cardinal O’Brien, first of the 3 great disastrous cardinals of the present century, but was asked to comment. What a great chance to take a stand against them – Cardinal Pell is still supping porridge, as they say in Scotland.

But what does he say? That O’Brien divided opinion. Many still see a division of opinion about Stalin, after all- you can still buy the Daily Worker in my local supermarket !

But to be serious, what kind of division . If your’e going to say something as daft as this on television, some kind of quantitative- nay, qualitative as well- must be added. Never a good mathematician, even I know that a division postulates two sides. One side is constant and refers to a hypocritical sexual adventurer who betrayed thousands of Catholics who looked up to him. It’s the other side that is intriguing. Who can they be, and is their opinion worth considering ? Ulsterman, physics teacher- I cannot imagine either group standing by him. Patter merchants will have long ago withdrawn the hem of their garments. People who didn’t mind their church collections being used to buy him an expensive house or houses ? This must be surely a statistically negligible group, should it in fact exist.

Of course, one of today’s great mantras is ‘It’s not fair’. One of TV’s great programmes is ‘Can’t Pay-They’ll Take it Away’. This is the almost universal response to the demand that rent for accommodation should be paid. It is now becoming now the almost universal response to anything that doesn’t suit. My favourite, from one of those fascinating programmes about railway stations, was from a lady whose train was delayed. That too was not fair. ‘It’s not fair’ she complained. When this mantra is extended to medical complaints, then truly the NHS will be threatened.

Does the other leg of Archbishop Cushley’s proposition feel that O’Brien’s end was in some way not fair? That in a country so sharply divided in terms what he did was fair ?

The Italian concept of campanalismo, or that my church steeple is better than yours, is to me childish. But is this just an Edinburgh thing? I know no one in Glasgow who feels that O’Brien was treated unfairly, and if they exist they’ve been very quiet.

Seminary education, ever since the Council of Trent, has ultimately proved disastrous. I give you Cardinal McCarrick and the rest. When I say that I doubt Archbishop Cushley has ever done a day’s work in his life, I an not applying some early 20th century Marxist apparatchik litmus test.I am simply saying that he has never had to go to work in 21st century Scotland , work at any level, work in which a Catholic is viewed at best with puzzled amusement, or at worst with quite inexplicable distaste.In the nicest possible way- and there are many, many other ways of putting it- he simply does not know what he is talking about when he says that opinions about O’Brien are divided. But the implications of what he says are to be lived with daily in the workplace. Think about it.

I have assumed that the opinions to which he refers are Catholic opinions. The opinions of others are, I am afraid, interesting but irrelevant.

I had thought of establishing an entirely different title than ‘Feed The Flock’ for this website. The title considered was ‘Nonces and Nuncios’

I am taking this at the moment under advisement, as the judges say in TV crime shows. But it is tempting.

Meanwhile, let us hope that Archbishop Cushley reconsiders his approach to the Cardinal O’Brien scandal.