Everything about Roman Catholicism In Scotland totally explained
The
Catholic Church in Scotland describes the organisation of the worldwide
Roman Catholic Church in
Scotland, which is distinct from the
Catholic Church in England and Wales or the
Catholic Church in Ireland.
In the
2001 census about 16% of the
population of Scotland described themselves as being Roman Catholic, compared with 42% affiliated to the
Church of Scotland.
(External Link
) Most Scottish Catholics are the descendants of
Scottish Highlanders and
Irish immigrants who moved to Scotland's cities and towns during the nineteenth century, however there are significant numbers of
Italian,
Lithuanian(External Link) and
Polish ancestry, with more recent Polish immigrants again boosting the numbers.
One of the issues it has had to face is
sectarianism, though this is now largely restricted to
football in parts of the
Central Belt, especially in the west, or to spillovers from
Northern Ireland.
History
Christianity probably came to Scotland around the second century, and was firmly established by the sixth and seventh centuries. However, until the eleventh century, the relationship between the Church in Scotland and the
Papacy is ambiguous. The Scottish
Celtic Church had marked
liturgical and ecclesiological differences from the rest of
Western Christendom. Some of these were resolved at the end of the seventh century following the
Synod of Whitby and
St Columba's withdrawal to
Iona, however, it wasn't until the ecclessiastical reforms of the eleventh century that the Scottish Church became an integral part of the Catholic communion.
That remained the picture until the
Scottish Reformation in the early sixteen century, when the Church in Scotland broke with the papacy, and adopted a
Calvinist confession. At that point the celebration of the Catholic Mass was outlawed. When
Mary Queen of Scots returned from
France to rule, she found herself as a Catholic in a largely
Protestant state and Protestant
court. However, some few thousand indigenous Scottish Catholics remained mainly in a small strip from the north-east coast to the
Western Isles. Significant strongholds included
Moidart,
Morar and
Barra. However some Scottish
Lairds and land owners remained Roman Catholic and some converted such as
Saint John Ogilvie.
The
Jacobite risings in
1715 and
1745 further damaged the Catholic cause in Scotland and it wasn't until the start of
Catholic Emancipation in 1793 that Roman Catholicism regained a civil respectability. During this time, the Catholics of Scotland helped keep alive certain important aspects of Scottish culture that the Presbyterian majority disdained, such as the traditional
bagpipe and Scottish clothing.
During the nineteenth century,
Irish immigration substantially boosted the number of Scottish Roman Catholics, especially in the west, and by
1900 it was estimated that 90-95% of Scottish Catholics were fully or partly of
Irish descent. However, since many of the Irish came from heavily Scottish-influenced
Ulster, and had many cultural similarities including similar
Gaelic languages, the distinction between "Irish" and "Scottish" Catholics was blurry, and indeed most Scottish Catholics have both Irish and Scottish (especially Highlander) ancestry.
Italian,
Polish, and
Lithuanian immigrants have also boosted the numbers of
Roman Catholics in Scotland.
The Roman Catholic hierarchy was re-established in
1878 at the beginning of his pontificate by
Pope Leo XIII. (See
Restoration of the Scottish hierarchy) Currently the senior bishop in Scotland is Cardinal
Keith Michael Patrick O'Brien,
Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh.
Organisation
There are two
archbishops and six
bishops in Scotland:
Further Information
Get more info on 'Roman Catholicism In Scotland'.
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