ANTI-sectarian efforts in Scotland have failed to cut bigotry because they have shied away from challenging anti-Catholicism head on, church leaders have claimed.
Senior representatives within the Catholic Church say that the state's efforts to rid the country of the stain of religious bigotry have too often descended into "platitudes" because they have not focused specifically on anti-Catholic feelings.
They are now calling on politicians and the police to counter anti-Catholic sentiment in a similar way to "drink-drive" campaigns, in order to bring the issue to the surface.
In an article for the Scottish Catholic Observer, church spokesman Peter Kearney declared: "Over the last ten years significant amounts of public money have been given to organisations offering anti-sectarianism training and information. Most, if not all, Scottish schoolchildren have been given talks, workshops and leaflets on the subject. Using the measurable criteria we have, there is no indication to date that the problem has diminished."
He goes on: "This may be an appropriate time, therefore, to question the merits of public funding for 'one-size-fits-all' anti-intolerance programmes. Such approaches, unless carefully focused on a measurable problem, can often reduce to nothing more than lowest common denominator platitudes."
Mr Kearney said a new approach would "directly address the problem of anti-Catholicism" in Scotland.
"In the same way that annual drink-drive purges aren't referred to as road safety campaigns but specifically labelled in accordance with the behaviour they seek to eradicate, so too should anti-sectarianism initiatives be labelled in a far more specific way."
Mr Kearney's comments come three months after he prompted debate about the extent of anti-Catholicism in Scotland by claiming there continued to be "deep, wide and vicious anti-Catholic hostility" in Scotland, comments he made after it emerged that SFA referee chief Hugh Dallas had circulated an offensive e-mail about the Pope during last year's visit to Scotland.
After Mr Dallas was sacked, humanist campaigner Professor Richard Dawkins accused the SFA of a "craven giving-in to Catholic censorship" and described Mr Kearney - who had complained to the SFA about the e-mail - as "a nasty little weasel".
In his opinion piece on the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science website, Prof Dawkins included a photo used in the e-mail incident and told followers to forward it to the SFA and the Scottish Catholic Church's media office.
Mr Kearney said that in the wake of the row he received "an instant and tumultuous barrage of criticism" over his actions.
They are now calling on politicians and the police to counter anti-Catholic sentiment in a similar way to "drink-drive" campaigns, in order to bring the issue to the surface.
In an article for the Scottish Catholic Observer, church spokesman Peter Kearney declared: "Over the last ten years significant amounts of public money have been given to organisations offering anti-sectarianism training and information. Most, if not all, Scottish schoolchildren have been given talks, workshops and leaflets on the subject. Using the measurable criteria we have, there is no indication to date that the problem has diminished."
He goes on: "This may be an appropriate time, therefore, to question the merits of public funding for 'one-size-fits-all' anti-intolerance programmes. Such approaches, unless carefully focused on a measurable problem, can often reduce to nothing more than lowest common denominator platitudes."
Mr Kearney said a new approach would "directly address the problem of anti-Catholicism" in Scotland.
"In the same way that annual drink-drive purges aren't referred to as road safety campaigns but specifically labelled in accordance with the behaviour they seek to eradicate, so too should anti-sectarianism initiatives be labelled in a far more specific way."
Mr Kearney's comments come three months after he prompted debate about the extent of anti-Catholicism in Scotland by claiming there continued to be "deep, wide and vicious anti-Catholic hostility" in Scotland, comments he made after it emerged that SFA referee chief Hugh Dallas had circulated an offensive e-mail about the Pope during last year's visit to Scotland.
After Mr Dallas was sacked, humanist campaigner Professor Richard Dawkins accused the SFA of a "craven giving-in to Catholic censorship" and described Mr Kearney - who had complained to the SFA about the e-mail - as "a nasty little weasel".
In his opinion piece on the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science website, Prof Dawkins included a photo used in the e-mail incident and told followers to forward it to the SFA and the Scottish Catholic Church's media office.
Mr Kearney said that in the wake of the row he received "an instant and tumultuous barrage of criticism" over his actions.
He said the media had portrayed anti-Catholicism as a "post-match, drink-fuelled rivalry. It isn't, it is altogether deeper and wider than that".
He says the church now wants the Crown Office to publish a detailed breakdown of sectarian offences in Scotland, so that people can see which ones relate to anti-Semitism, Islamophobia or anti-Catholicism.
A Scottish Government spokesman said last night that it would maintain funding for anti-sectarian measures.
He says the church now wants the Crown Office to publish a detailed breakdown of sectarian offences in Scotland, so that people can see which ones relate to anti-Semitism, Islamophobia or anti-Catholicism.
A Scottish Government spokesman said last night that it would maintain funding for anti-sectarian measures.
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