Hi there,
I am a Scottish Catholic and am fiercely opposed to “independence”.
(NB - “Independence” is actually a spurious term; Scotland is not ruled by England or any other nation, rather Scotland is in a partnership of nations. “Dissolution of the UK” would be a better term).
Scotland has been - since the reformation - a pretty bigoted, anti-Catholic nation. Anti-Catholicism seems to be in many peoples DNA. For centuries, Catholics were hated by many Scots.
In Scotland - as in other places - many people would traditionally call themselves “Protestants” - but this is a meaningless term. There is no “Protestant Church” nor “Protestant Christian”. Rather, there are up to 70,000 different groups, all claiming to be Christian, who the term “Protestant” refers to. Most of these groups are like chalk and cheese and certainly there is nothing resembling a unified belief.
In Scotland, after the reformation, different “Protestants” came together to forge a common identity, or as close to one as they could manage. As mentioned, “Protestants” have no common belief - indeed, some of their groups are close rip-offs of Catholicism - and so rather than form a common identity based on what they were, (which is naturally impossible, given the nature of Protestantism), they formed an identify on based on what they were not. Thus, anti-Catholicism became the root of modern Scottish identity.
In the few centuries since the reformation, Protestantism of all shades in Scotland has proved to be an abject failure. There are no surprises here, for we Catholics. However, while these denominations have seen church-going decline tremendously, hatred of Catholics has not. Indeed, bigotry is one of the few remaining tangible aspects of Protestantism in Scotland.
The Church of Scotland - at best a hollow parody of Christianity - is expected to cease to exist in 20 - 30 years. However, up until a mere 10 years ago, the official opinion of this “Church” was that Scottish Catholics (a minority group) were:
- immoral drunkards
- out to undermine Scottish society
- responsible for most crime in Scotland
- “racially inferior” to non-Catholic Scots
Naturally, this hate speech has caused severe divisions in Scottish society. The former position of the Church of Scotland with regard to Catholics has quite remarkable parallels to Adolf Hitler’s position with regard to Jews (this is
by no means an exaggeration).
What was most galling, was that at the same time as preaching this hatred, the Church of Scotland consistently claimed that Catholic schools were the main source of social division. So, they were liars, as well as bigots.
In the modern era, Protestant Church-going has collapsed (and no wonder). Protestant Churches are now largely the preserve of a dwindling band of very elderly people. However, while “protestants” have abandoned faith, they certainly have not abandoned anti-Catholicism.
While “Protestant” Churches are lie empty, or are sold off as pubs or converted into flats - Orange Marches (anti-Catholic parades) can still draw as many as 8,000 people in Scotland (a recent stat for a Glasgow march).
A residual dislike of Catholics - left over from the folly of Protestantism - is still very common in Scotland.
An SNP MSP recently suggested that, in an independent Scotland, the Catholic Church could be stripped of it’s right to conduct marriages (as punishment for not carrying out “gay marriages”). The Scottish Conservative Party has recently been involved in various minor scandals regarding anti-Catholic sentiment. Had it been gay people or black people, the scandals would have been major-scandals. It is still common today for people to blame Catholic schools for causing divisions in Scotland.
Basically, many people in Scotland are ill-informed, easily led bigots, who - in their ignorance - see Catholicism as alien / strange. Which is pretty ironic, given anything good in Scotland came originally from the Catholic Church - Papal support for self-determination, the Papacy founding various Scottish Universities, Catholic Christianity founding our moral values etc.
Modern Scotland is a small, parochial, inward looking, deeply bigoted country. It is not the impressive, fierce Catholic Scotland of the pre-reformation days.
I have no doubt that “independence” would spell difficult times for Scots Catholics and that is but one reason why I am fully committed to the United Kingdom - which, while still generally anti-Catholic - is much more tolerant that Scotland as a separate entity.
Rule Britannia!
