Posted on 07/30/2021 6:28:59 PM PDT by marshmallow
Local fears destruction of 163-year-old church another manifestation of anti-Catholic sentiment
GLASGOW, Scotland, July 29, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) – Just two days after a priest was attacked with a bottle in Edinburgh’s Catholic cathedral, a 163-year-old Catholic church in nearby Glasgow was engulfed in flames.
At around 2:40 a.m. on Wednesday morning, a team of 30 firefighters was dispatched to the parish church of St. Simon’s in Partick, a district within Glasgow’s leafy west end, where a large fire was consuming the building, the third oldest Catholic church in the city.
After evacuating the residents of neighboring buildings, the firefighters tackled the blaze. The historic landmark, however, was completely gutted within half an hour, according to a report in The Scotsman. One person was saved from inside the church before it was destroyed; no one was injured during the incident.
A spokesman for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service confirmed the details of the incident in a statement: “We were alerted at 2.40 a.m. on Wednesday, July 28 to reports of a fire within a church on Partick Bridge Street, Partick, Glasgow.”
“Operations Control mobilised six fire appliances including two height appliances and more than 30 firefighters are in attendance and working to extinguish the fire.”
“One person was assisted from the property and given precautionary treatment at the scene. Adjacent properties have been evacuated as a precautionary measure and nearby residents are advised to keep windows and doors closed due to smoke.”
(Excerpt) Read more at lifesitenews.com ...
First the Coptic Church in Canada (which had a previous attempt to burn it) and, a day later, a Catholic Church in Scotland (which had a previous attempt to attack an ordained priest).
Certainly nothing but mere coincidence.
Fires gutted both churches by the time the firefighters arrived.
Why do I have this funny feeling that any CCTV videos will provide no useful information or the cameras will be unfortunately out-of-order?
What is this about? I know that some of the wars between England & Scotland were religious wars between the Protestants and Catholics, and Ireland probably still has some of that, but I didn’t think it was still an issue in Scotland. Hate to see that. And what a disaster to lose that beautiful church.
I am personally not fond of the current Pope, but as a Methodist I say Live and let live, it will all be settled when the Lord comes back.
Was not that long ago that Catholic neighborhood people were not really allowed in Protestant Neighborhoods in Glasgow.
Old feuds die real hard over there in Scotland and Ireland. To this day, in N Ireland, they have Catholic Neighborhoods and Protestant neighborhoods partitioned off with walls to keep both sides apart.
The walls worked. And so they are still up.
That is the main reason we have the first amendment in our constitution.
Technically, the reasons (such as they are) for these crimes are unknown because the criminals who did them have yet to be caught and brought to the bar of justice.
That reservation made, I suspect you would find the perpetrators are non-Christians or atheists with an abiding hatred for Christians that is based in real and imagined past injustices along with generalized upset over this or that traditional Christian moral teaching they dislike. Add to this attributing guilt to all Christians through mere association and the vulnerability/poor security of the churches themselves.
The buildings were convenient, easy targets and the arsonist didn’t care how connected or unconnected they were with their grievances. Damaging or, better yet, destroying them would hurt Christian sensibilities and, even if caught, the magnitude of the punishment could never redress the harm inflicted.
Doing that would require something truly medieval and we are now much, much too civilized for that.
Unfortunately.
If I were a bishop (OK, ebb, ha ha) I’d sideline some of those CCHD and CRS funds and tell every parish to hire an armed guard or at very least security camera, alarm, etc.
This is not a “Scotland” problem. It’s happening all over the world including USA. Hierarchy ignoring it and letting innocent people be victimized is abdicating their responsibility.
Thank you for you explanation. I suppose living in the USA we tend to forget, not only our own history, but the histories that came across the water with us. My third great grandfather and family came over around 1800. My grandfather was born in 1778 and still had the Scottish bur in his speech. They were Presbyterian and I can still hear my Dad flogging the Catholics for everything they did, even though there was not a Catholic soul anywhere within 100 miles of our Tennessee wilderness. He was a college graduate and taught H.S. Chemistry. I always wondered why he had those pinions. Yes, you are right the feuds did cling. Later we moved out of the wilderness I went to school, I’m with children from all walks of life. Nobody asked me about my religion because I didn’t go to church, and Dad softened a bit. I had no opinion about religion except or dinner table was still the arena for battle bet ween Presbyterian and Church of Christ between my parents. In seminary I had a great course of Religious History. Of course we see isolated church burning in the U.S. but most seem to be small isolated churches (often Baptist ).
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