Posted on 08/25/2006 7:57:16 PM PDT by Rodney King
he Catholic church has blasted a decision by the Procurator Fiscal to issue Celtic goalkeeper Artur Boruc with a caution for blessing himself.
Polish star Boruc was rapped for making the sign of the cross at Ibrox in an Old Firm match last season.
The caution was issued after a six-month police investigation into the incident, which is said to have angered a section of the Rangers support.
Boruc is reported to have been completely baffled by the decision to issue him with the warning But the move has angered the church and prominent Scottish Catholics including outspoken composer James McMillan and Celtic author Dr Joe Bradley.
Last night Peter Kearney spokesman for the Catholic Church in Scotland, slammed the move. He said: "It is quite worrying that firstly some spectators saw fit to complain, but even more so that police felt that the act merited investigation.
"Incitement to religious hatred normally involves demeaning the signs and symbols of a person's faith "So, it would be interesting to know how a gesture of reverence falls into any of these categories.
"This decision could lead us down a very intolerant road.
"What if a family in a restaurant say grace and make the sign of the cross, would they be deemed as having inflamed the sensibilities of non-Catholics?" Renowned composer and Celtic fan James MacMillan, who's spoken out in the past about sectarianism, said the fuss over Boruc's act was a 'disgrace'.
He added: "It is completely ridiculous but then cases like these always are.
"It's a disgrace that in this day and age, such a fuss is being made over an incident like this. "It is a mark of shame that people cannot express their faith in a certain manner."
Dr Joe Bradley, editor of two books about Celtic and lecturer at Stirling University, said Boruc should be free to bless himself anywhere he likes.
He said: "This seems to tie in with the police report on Boruc who had apparently upset a section of the Rangers support.
"Only when people like Artur Boruc can bless themselves wherever and whenever they want will Scotland's sectarian problem be on its way to being solved." A Crown Office spokesman said that following careful consideration it was decided to use an alternative to prosecution in Boruc's case.
Options open to the fiscal included a straight warning or a warning plus payment of a monetary penalty known as a fiscal's fine.
Celtic have refused to comment ever since the caution was issued to their Polish keeper last week.
But last night Eddie Toner former General Secretary of the Celtic Supporters' Association said the club had "hung Boruc out to dry". He said: "It is sad that Celtic as a club appear to have made no objection to or comment on the caution.
"They seem to have hung Artur Boruc out to dry. "Celtic have a responsibility to protect the community from which they derive support, especially when that community come under attack.
"Perhaps those who made the complaint to the police should have a look at themselves, as it seems that it is they who have the sectarian problem.
"This gesture is one which is made by sportsmen and women all over the world, but bizarrely it only seems to cause offence here in Scotland." Boruc is not the first footballer in Scotland to have caused controversy by making the sign of the cross.
In 1999 Rangers fans complained after Celtic's former Croatian striker Mark Viduka blessed himself during an Old firm game.
Rod McDonald of Partick Thistle received a caution for blessing himself in a match against Rangers in 1996.
The yellow-card led to him being sent off for two bookable offences.
Before the Reformation (a.k.a. "splitting and wrecking") Scotland was a Catholic country. Now --- like Quebec --- it's full of beautiful old churches which have been converted into restaurants, loft apartments, hip-hop studios, and the occasional mosque.
From BBC News:
Rangers manager Dick Advocaat was caught speeding in Glasgow. The Dutchman was doing 56mph in a 30 zone. He is reported as being very upset about the £60 fine but at the same time delighted with the three points.
Great joke!
Reminds me of another one. A guy is pulled into the alley in Belfast. His assailant, with his hands in a strangle-hold around the guy's throat from behind, snarls, "Protestant or Catholic?"
Thinking fast, the guy chokes out, "I'm Jewish!"
The assailant exclaims, "I can't believe my luck! Allahu Akbar!"
I've heard something similar to the season ticket joke wrt a golfer who stops on the fairway and takes off his hat as a funeral passes. His partner remarks that he appreciates his respect, and he says, "Well, she was a good wife."
Good photo--- but I've never seen that gesture. What does it mean?
I was Episcopalian the last time I went to Scotland, I'll have to be careful if I go to Glasgow again. (But with my 6'6" 250 pound husband I should be pretty safe. He's a real pussycat but casual observers don't know that.)
This is how revolutions begin and lots and lots of people die.
I was in Scotland for a prolife conference!!
Good grief. Could you possibly be more melodramatic?
I could ad music... something from the end of Schidler's List
I'm just calling it as it is.
No, you are trumpeting your sheer ignorance concerning the subject matter. Read the thread and school yourself on sectarianism.
Thanks for the ping!
Getting on trouble for making a cross sign offends you? Or are you upset knowing the European animal is killing itself?
Much of the Catholic heritage was forcibly destroyed at the time of the Protestant Reformation, but the Scots remained within the Christian fold.
In the Act of Union in 1707, England and Scotland agreed to permanently join as Great Britain; this can be considered the founding of the modern political entity of Scotland. It guaranteed that the Church of Scotland would remain the established church in Scotland, and included the restatement of the Act of Settlement 1701 and the ban on Roman Catholics from taking the throne.
Until the mid-20th century it remained a country in which the holidays, laws, literature, values, civic rituals and education were all Christian. Far more so than in the United States at that time.
At present, Scotland is largely secularized, contraceptive, and showing signs of civilization in decline. Its total fertility rate (1.66) is way, way below replacement, and last year the resident Muslims, who make up at most 3% of its population, had 12% of its babies.
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Anyone is absolutely kidding himself who imagines that once great Briain will ever again know the relative (When compared to all other than American) FReedoms once provided it by Rule of Greco/Roman/Judeo-Christian/English Law, will ever again be free of the tyranny of Sharia "law" -- and/or will even survive the plunge into the new and permenant Dark Ages being afforded it and all of Eurabia by the millions of psychopathologically and hesperophobically-terroristic islamanzis and other barbarians already in their midst.
"You wouldn't want to be sitting in the wrong stands in Celtic-Rangers matches in Glasgow."
100% true. The fans in this rivalry make Eagles fans look like a bunch of wimpy old church ladies. They wouldn't let you into the Celtic or Rangers section in the wrong colors. And for good reason, you'd get your #$# beat.
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