That was never going to work was it?

We have had our moments to be sure. Some would argue that our public pain as a church this past decade, latterly arriving on our own shores with O’Brien-gate, is a result of the restrictive celibacy rule. Others would blame other issues: social issues, governance, etc.

I haven’t yet noted anyone, even our opponents attempt to explain the scandals by doctrinal error. Peter’s Bark may have been tossed to and fro by the storms of scandal but she is not changing course.

Five Hundred years since the Reformation in Scotland when Sola Scriptura became the faith mantra of the majority on these shores, we can see the fruits of this doctrinal error in what is considered our National Church.

This isn’t a time for point-scoring. We should be concerned. In our struggles against the tides of new age secularism one of our best allies has been holed beneath the water-line. We are pretty much alone now. Lacking a bit of credibility, storm weary, looking around anxiously for our Shepherds. The mouths of wolves are watering all around us.

Some smaller Protestant groups will distract them from time to time. Inevitably, the likes of divorce and contraception have already breached their bulwarks. Some can be accused of an indifference to Life-issues at least by omission. How long can they hold out I wonder? Not forever.

Saint Augustine once said "Rome has spoken, the case is closed". The Reformation claimed it replied "No! Scripture has spoken the case is closed" The evidence of history will now say "That was never going to work. Was it?"

The Cuckoo in Pope Francis's Nest

"GK Chesterton once remarked that the Catholic Church was ‘an institution run with such slavish imbecility that if it were not the work of God, it wouldn’t last a fortnight’.

Given the personal and institutional crisis rocking the Catholic Church in Scotland, Chesterton, if here now, might have concluded that God had given up on this northern outpost of faith."

Read on at

The Cuckoo In Pope Francis’s Nest - The Commentator

Cardinal told to leave Scotland

Cardinal ordered into exile by Vatican | Herald Scotland

CARDINAL Keith O'Brien has been told by the Vatican to leave the UK amid concerns of wreaking further damage on the Catholic Church in Scotland.

Friends of the cleric have said he has been told by Rome to shelve his plans to retire to a church-owned cottage in East Lothian and instead leave the country.

The Herald understands Cardinal O'Brien was given the news yesterday afternoon, three days after being photographed moving his personal belongings from his official residence in Edinburgh to the residence in Dunbar where he had been spending regular weekends over the past few years.

Teuchtar Comments: It is nice to see the Cardinal has so many supporters. The full article goes on to claim:

"A recent petition organised by the parishioners of Our Lady of The Waves in Dunbar saw more than 90% of those attending the Saturday vigil and Sunday mass signing a statement declaring "our support and affection for Cardinal Keith O'Brien".

Sometimes however the good of the wider Church has to take precedence over personal loyalty and affection. This is probably one of these occasions.

Scottish Catholics: Statistically Speaking

SCOTS Catholics are more likely to be poor or in prison than Protestants, a Government study showed yesterday.

They also have a higher chance of being unemployed, lacking qualifications and having long-term illnesses. The study of inequality across Scotland examined how groups cope with the jobs market, justice, crime and poverty.

Forty-two per cent declared themselves to be Church of Scotland compared to just under 16 per cent who identified as Catholics.
But 23 per cent of prisoners are Catholic and 29 Protestant. Last night Peter Kearney of the Scottish Catholic Media Office said: “These statistics highlight very concerning social issues which definitely merit much greater research and analysis.”

Around eight per cent of Catholics were unemployed, compared to just over five per cent identified as Church of Scotland. One in six Protestants lives in the poorest areas of Scotland, while for Catholics, it’s one in three.

Read more:

Catholics in Scotland ‘more likely to struggle’ | The Sun |Scottish News

Scottish Independence article from Archdiocese of Boston

GLENELG, Scotland (CNS) -- At the center of this isolated seaside community, overlooked by shadowy mountains on the nearby Isle of Skye, local fishing folk tap their feet as traditional music echoes from the village inn.

The BBC broadcasts in Gaelic here, and most youngsters have never been to Edinburgh, the Scottish capital 125 miles southeast, let alone to England.

In the fall of 2014, Glenelg's residents will have a chance to express their identity when Scotland votes in a referendum on independence. If Scots opt for full independence, it will end a union going back four centuries.

"Although the church won't be telling people how to vote, some bishops have indicated unofficially they'd have no problem with independence," Father Scott Deeley, assistant chancellor of the Archdiocese of St. Andrews and Edinburgh, told Catholic News Service.

"Even after the 1707 Act of Union, which united Scotland and England, the Scots kept their own legal system as well as their own separate churches," he said. "So independence wouldn't make much practical difference to the lives of most Catholics."

Read rest of article at:

As Scots weigh independence, church won't tell Catholics how to vote. Published in the 4/28/2013 edition of The Pilot