The Scottish Catholic Experience As Seen from Perth 1685-2007
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From Persecution to Integration: The Scottish Catholic Experience as seen from Perth 1685-2007 Volume Two: A New History of the Catholic Community and Parish of Perth Editor: Harry Schnitker From Persecution to Integration: The Scottish Catholic Experience as seen from Perth 1685-2007 Editor Dr. Harry Schnitker, University of Glasgow Scientifi c Advisor Stephen Clayes Parish History Group Brian Foley, chair Ivan Carnegie Tom Monaghan The Aquhorties Press Edinburgh Page ii Published by The Aquhorties Press Columba House 16 Drummond Place Edinburgh Scotland Editor: Dr. Harry Schnitker Contributors: Very Rev. Jim McManus, C.Ss.R. JM Rev. Fr. Martin Regan MR Ivan Carnegie IC Stephen Clayes SC Brian Foley BF Norma Guilianotti NG Richard Jackson RJ Anne Lauraitus AL Anne Mitchell AM Tom Monaghan TM Dr. Harry Schnitker HS © 2007 The editor and the contributors ISBN 978-0-9557501-1-6 Typeset and organisation of layout: Andrew Mitchell Printed and bound by Danscot, Perth Page iii Contents Introduction 1 Part One: The History of Community and Parish 2 1685 to 1831: ‘A Time of Essentials’ 3-6 1832 to 1981: From Mission to Parish 7-10 1982: The Visit of Pope John Paul II to Scotland 11-12 1982 to 2007: The Modern Parish 13-14 Part Two: Clergy and Community 15 The Clergy of the Mission and the Parish 16-17 Eight Representative Priests 18 Fr. John Ambrose Cook, O.S.B. 19 Abbé Paul McPherson 20 Fr. William Wallace 21 Fr. John Geddes 22 Fr. James Mackay 23 Bishop George Rigg 24 Fr. John McPherson 25 Fr. John Stewart McCorry 26 Priests of the Mission and the Parish 27-29 Immigration and the Catholic Communities 30-31 The Italian Connection 32-33 Polish Connections: The Story of Irene and Felix Jackson 34-35 Church Societies and Organisations 36-37 Scottish Catholic Education 38-39 Part Three: Devotional Life 40 Continuity and Adaptation of Worship, 1685-2007 41-44 The Sacred Heart of Jesus 45-46 Devotion to Mary 47-48 Pilgrimages 49-50 Part Four: Artistic Achievement 51 The Building of the Church of St. John the Baptist 52-53 St. Mary’s Monastery, Kinnoull 54 Artistic Endeavours 55-56 Page 1 Introduction he last history of the community who risked their lives to re-establish and parish of St. John the Baptist the Catholic Church in the wake of the Tis celebrating its centenary this fi asco of the Reformation were given year. Fr. Michael Lavelle’s, Historical their due. The fourth Earl of Perth, Sketch of the Perth Mission: 1831- Fr. John Ambrose Cook, O.S.B., and 1907, was published in Perth. He was the priests and community of the the missionary in St. John’s at the late seventeenth- and eighteenth time, and, on the occasion of the 75th centuries deserve some recognition. anniversary of the foundation of the This, then, is a history that pushes church, he did what this book also sets the boundaries of time: backwards out to do: namely, to record the past of into the seventeenth century, and the community. However, Fr. Lavelle forwards to our own day, to 2007. It also decided that, with the exception of pushes the boundaries of geography. a few notes on the community at This community has not only grown Stobhall, he was not going to look numerically since the days of Fr. much beyond the date that Bishop Cook’s fi rst conversions, but it has Paterson ordered Fr. Geddes to go also fl uctuated much in its borders. to Perth. Such decisions matter. They At times, the mission encompassed matter because they determine the the whole of Perthshire, and even way in which we examine the past, extended beyond. At other times, it and they determine that way in which was confi ned to the boundaries of the we perceive our own story. city of Perth, and, since the 1960s, There was much that was has seen a new parish arise within that tendentious in Fr. Lavelle’s work, a city. In addition, the city of Perth has good deal of hearsay was reported as another Catholic institution, besides ‘The Truth’. This was, in many ways, its two parishes: the Redemptorist inevitable. He was writing in a time monastery in Kinnoull. It is not quite when Catholicism in Perth was hardly as old as the parish of St. John the embraced by the wider community. Baptist, but has, nevertheless, made One can forgive some combatative a major contribution to Catholic life in and innovative history writing on the the city. It will not do to be restrictive part of Fr. Lavelle. However, it is clear in this type of book: restrictiveness that there is some considerable need blinds us to many aspects of the for an update and revision of his book. past. Since its publication, another one The aim of the contributors to this hundred years have past, a hundred book has been to show the rich years in which the community that past of the community, to highlight he served has changed a good deal. its main artistic achievements, but, Indeed, the Church that he served has above all, to explore some of the changed almost as much. In addition, aspects that combine to create that it is high time that the men and women community. Thus, the organisations Page 2 within the parish are highlighted, an hallmark of the Catholic ‘experience’. exploration is offered on the role of In short, an attempt has been made migrants, and particular attention is to present the past as a dynamic and paid to the experience of some of layered reality, as opposed to a static these migrants or migrant groups. concept. This, in turn, should assist Change and continuity in the life of an understanding of what has shaped the Church, both sacramental and the community of St. John’s of 2007. institutional is looked at, as well as some of those ‘typical’ devotional practices that have always been a HS Part One: The History of Community and Parish 1685 to 1831: the rich trappings of St. John’s were all removed, and the religious ‘A Time of Essentials’ houses torn down. Almost all the artistic accomplishments of the past centuries were simply wiped out. When, in May 1559, John Knox There was some initial reluctance came to Perth to preach in the church amongst some to embrace the new of St. John the Baptist, the Catholic doctrines. There are one or two reports Church in Scotland entered the from Perth that Mass was still being greatest crisis in its entire history. said, although we know tantalisingly This is not the place to examine the little about this. In the wider region, circumstances of its collapse, nor is incidences of pilgrimage or the it the place to enter the discussion on veneration of saints continued, in what exactly caused that collapse. some places well into the eighteenth Suffi ce to say that it took very little century. At Dunkeld, for example, effort to overthrow the whole edifi ce Christians of all denominations still of the Catholic Church in Scotland. went to a local holy well as late as Probably most of its priests and the 1650s. However, there was no many of its religious just adapted organised resistance, and, perhaps to the changing times, and became most importantly, there remained ministers or readers in the new very few priests who could continue Church of Scotland. This was also true the Faith. Only around Murthly Castle in Perth. With the exception of some was there any attempt to re-organise, of the Carthusians, Franciscans, and with the arrival of Jesuit fathers Dominicans, there was no resistance related to the Abercrombie family. to the message preached to such A few of the priests of the cathedral effect by Knox that May. The crowd chapter at Dunblane, and the took it upon themselves to destroy all incumbent in Muthil continued to say the symbols of the Catholic Church: Mass into the 1570s, and the Bishop Page 3 of Dunkeld stayed loyal to Rome, and assisted in the persecution of without, however, initiating any overt the Covenanters during the reign of resistance to the new settlement. Charles II. In his service, and in that By the 1610s, there is no further of the future James VII, James and report on any Catholic activity; nor is his brother, John, Earl of Melfort, this very surprising, as the number made rapid careers. When James of priests still active in Scotland succeeded to the Scottish crown in numbered fewer than ten. The 1685, the two Drummond brothers situation of Catholics in the country were effectively running the country. during the reign of Charles I and under That same year, they both converted the Cromwellian Commonwealth has to Catholicism. been called ‘pitiable’, but it would A lot of ink has been spilled on the seem that in Perthshire there was depth of their conversion. Many have really no Catholic to be pitied. The seen it as an attempt to ingratiate decision by the Holy See to restore themselves with the Catholic James independence to the remnant of VII. However, it has to be said that they Scotland’s Catholic Church in 1653, remained loyal to the Pope after their after it had resided under English conversion, and that their children archpriests since 1603, would not all grew up to be devout Catholics. have made much of an impact in the Indeed, one of Melfort’s sons became region. When Fr. William Leslie, S.J. a priest. On the Drummond estates, wrote his report to Propaganda fi dei the conversion caused the rebirth of a in 1677, there were, according to him, small Catholic community, the direct no Catholics in Perthshire at all.