A Catholic priest was spat on last Saturday as an Orange Order march passed by a Catholic church. The assault did not take place in Northern Ireland, as you might expect, but in Glasgow.
Fr Tom White (pictured) was greeting people after the Saturday vigil Mass at St Alphonsus Church in the east end of the city when the parade approached. The timing was unfortunate: police who had been giving protection to the church had just been called away to deal with another incident. Someone spat in Fr White’s face. Others shouted “Fenian b—–d” and “paedo”.
A statement on Facebook from the Archdiocese of Glasgow said: “[Fr White] was then further insulted and lunged at by a man carrying a pole before police arrived to restore some kind of order.
“What kind of society is it that allows ministers of religion and churchgoers to be intimidated and attacked by a group which has a long history of fomenting fear and anxiety on city streets?” the statement asked. “Why is the Orange Order still allowed to schedule its intimidating parades on streets containing Catholic churches at times when people are trying to get in and out for Mass?”
The Church in Scotland has long called for more efforts to tackle anti-Catholicism in the country. Earlier this year a Government report found that Catholics were the biggest victims of religiously aggravated hate crimes, making up more than half of all victims. At the time Peter Kearney of the Scottish Catholic Media Office told LifeSiteNews: “There’s no appetite for acknowledging the problem of anti-Catholicism.”
Saturday’s attack may have shocked politicians into paying attention. MSPs from all parties condemned the assault.
It even provoked comment from Nicola Sturgeon, the First Minister, who tweeted: “Behaviour like this – hate crime of any kind – is unacceptable and we will always consider what more we must do to eradicate it.”
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