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Catholic Church follows up on Hugh Dallas case

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Hugh Dallas sacked by the SFA

Hugh Dallas

The Catholic Church has labelled Scotland ‘the best small minded country in the world’ in the wake of the Hugh Dallas email scandal.

Dallas was finally sacked by the SFA on Friday although there has been no statement or comment on the matter.

The former Head of Refereeing continued in his job while an enquiry was on-going into claims that he sent out an e-mail mocking the Pope’s visit to Scotland and linking it to child abuse.

Writing in the Scottish edition of The Sunday Times, Peter Kearney, director of the Scottish Catholic Media Office, pulled no punches in his description of modern Scotland.

Discussing the Dallas incident he wrote: “Let no-one be in any doubt, with this shameful episode, Catholics in Scotland have drawn a line in the sand.

“The bigotry, the bile, the sectarian undercurrents and innuendos must end. Such hateful attitudes have had their day. They poison the well of community life. They must be excised and cast out once and for all.

“I detect a new resolve. Our grandparents and even our parents suffered intolerance and persecution. We will not tolerate it. We will not laugh it off or see the funny side – because there is no funny side.

“Beneath the surface of the nasty emails and the intemperate asides of public figures there are others whose malignancy is altogether more pernicious.”

Kearney’s article linked the racist bile of comedians such as Bernard Manning to racially motivated attacks in the 70s and 80s and claimed that the Catholic-baiting of the chattering classes bolsters the bigotry of a new generation of thugs.

During the article Keaney describes child abuse as the most heinous and vile of crimes adding that it is inexcusable and that those involved should face the fullest punishment.

Highlighting incidents of modern day bigotry against catholics he mentuoned: “The ones who threw a concrete block at a Lanarkshire priest striking him on the head.

“They are the ones who surrounded the car of the West Lothian priest hurling vile invective and trapping him in fear.

“They are the ones who hurled a brick into the bedroom of the Renfrewshire priest as he slept.

“Such incidents are a mere snapshot of the intolerance that catholics, especially clergy, have suffered and continue to suffer in what was once called ‘the best small country in the world.

“This epithet has been quickly recoined by some exasperated Catholics as ‘the best small minded country in the world’.”

Craig Thomson: It’ll be difficult to continue without Dallas

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