THE Archbishop of Glasgow has claimed that the Scottish Catholics are “too wishy-washy” when it comes to standing up for their beliefs.
Philip Tartaglia claims that Scottish Catholics “avoid conflict” even when it is the only option and have adapted to the world around them by focussing on the ethical values of their faith rather than the faith itself.
He says that Scottish Catholics try to avoid saying that they, “really believe in anything supernatural; in anything they can’t see or touch or experience; or in anything beyond modelling and encouraging decent behaviour.”
He continued: “Too many believers no longer talk about Jesus winning salvation for the sinful but instead point to him as a moral ideal of what humans should strive for.
“We accommodate. We compromise. We avoid conflict – even where conflict is the only proper course.
“We are too wishy-washy, as we would say in Scotland.”
The Archbishop’s comments appeared in an online publication from America called Crux, which is run by one of the world’s leading experts in the Vatican.
In the major new essay which details a stronger stance for his church, Archbishop Tartaglia’s essay were similar to the opinion he gave in a meeting with US colleagues in Philadelphia earlier this summer.
He warned that American Catholics may face similar threats to Scottish Catholics in the near future.
He said: “While that kind of old-style discrimination has largely faded, there is still a vague suspicion that Catholics don’t really belong, and if they are there, they should not make too much noise about their faith.
“Once upon a time, Catholics longed for and worked for the conversion of others including a nation’s cultural elites.
“Now, many of our Catholic leaders, intellectuals and academic institutions bend over backwards to assure the gatekeepers of culture and prestige they are just as right-thinking as they are.
“The new ‘religious’ consensus in the UK is a combination of scepticism, consumer appetite, and political intolerance.
“It masks itself with progressive vocabulary, but its targets tend to be practicing Christians.
“Old-fashioned Protestant ‘No Popery here’ slogans may have faded, but today’s discrimination is much more sophisticated.
“Atheists and secularists in the 1960s and 1970s were content to ignore or mock the Catholic Church, but today, many see her as the single most formidable threat to their notions of justice and equality, particularly when it comes to matters of human sexuality.”
Addressing the American priests, he continued: “For 15 years in this country, your mass media have hammered away at the Church on the abuse issue, often fairly, but often not.
“But most of your people haven’t wavered. They support Catholic schools. They support your Catholic charitable ministries.
“They love their parishes, and they trust and respect their pastors with a high degree of confidence.
“That doesn’t stop them from complaining but people complain when they want to belong. It’s part of a normal family life.”
