Dec 1, 2010 / 22:59 pm
Responding to comments made against Pope Benedict during his visit, a Scottish spokesman for the Catholic Church has decried “sectarianism” and popular blindness towards anti-Catholic bigotry, saying it contributes to thuggish violence against Catholic clergy.
A senior Scottish Football Association (SFA) official, head of referee development Hugh Dallas, allegedly sent an e-mail to other SFA staff on the day of Pope Benedict’s September visit to Scotland which joked about Catholic sex abuse scandals and implied the pontiff was a pedophile.
Peter Kearney, director of the Scottish Catholic Media Office, wrote to the SFA two months after the e-mail was first reported to have been sent, asking for further action. Dallas resigned later that week, citing family reasons.
Writing in the Sunday Times, Kearney criticized “sectarianism” and said the reaction to his letter “has proved beyond doubt that Scotland has become completely inured to the corrosive effects of religious bigotry and may even have lost sight of what constitutes it.”