I HAD to do a re-take of your front page story ("Archbishop: We are too wishy-washy”, The Herald, August 15).With all due respect to Archbishop Tartaglia I believe that he has overstepped the mark.
As Catholics here in Scotland we have had to endure decades in which the hierarchy has presided over real scandal. Children abused. The survivors abandoned. And still the faithful worship albeit in smaller numbers and with sore hearts.
Goodness, if we were a FTSE-100 company or a community organisation we would have been closed down. And rightly so.
No Archbishop, we Scottish Catholics are not wishy-washy. Look up from the pulpit and you will witness a faithful and resilient people. Albeit a bit bruised. We have been able to look beyond the deficiencies of the church, the inadequacies of its Scottish leadership and tried to embrace Christ and His truths within the chaos.
For some it has been too much and they have left. For those who remain, including myself, it has been a real struggle. The Archbishop's essay doesn't make it any easier.
Roddy MacDonald,
1 Glenmount Place, Ayr.
I CAN understand why the Archbishop of Glasgow has claimed Catholics are too wishy-washy about belief- and don’t stand up for faith. However, I think too much is made of one Christian quality – "belief". St Anthony (one of the Desert Fathers) had humility. He spent time studying those Christians whose qualities shone. St. Augustine taught us to be content with the spectacles God provides – rather than the crude, often cruel ones that man provides.
The Reformation and Enlightenment bequeath us a legacy of trusting rationality. Yet the history leaves both Catholics and Protestants things to feel ashamed about, even up to the present day – if they looked back with humility.
Brain science now teaches us to be aware of irrational emotional forces, which can make hearts cold and cruel. We need to take great care to have balanced beliefs. This may be news to many people – because churches focus narrowly on theology - and traditional religious rituals and routines. I would rather be a wishy-washy liberal, and study the inspiring spiritual characters of the past, than be like a tabloid press propagandist for the Donald Trump characters who do well politically in our anti-liberal culture.
Andrew Vass,
24 Corbiehill Place, Edinburgh.
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