forwarded from RAG
apologies for cross posting
Iain Flett
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The controversy about the Scottish hierarchy’s planned fragmentation of the Scottish Catholic Archives (SCA), more or less centralized at Columba House in Edinburgh since 1958 (which was peremptorily closed for normal service on 28 June 2012), rumbles on. Here is a (personal) round-up of recent developments:
 
a) An online public petition to keep the SCA in Edinburgh, in the care of a qualified archivist, was launched on 22 July 2012 and currently has 606 signatures, many of them with accompanying comments. See:
 
http://www.change.org/petitions/the-roman-catholic-church-in-scotland-keep-the-scottish-catholic-archives-in-edinburgh-2?utm_medium=email&utm_source=discussionupdate
 
b) The petition is additional to the public letter issued by the Society for Scottish Medieval and Renaissance Studies, which has been signed by more than 100 academic historians, including Diarmaid MacCulloch Kt, Professor of the History of the Church at Oxford.
 
c) In a letter to THE SCOTSMAN, published on 23 July 2012, Dr Athol Murray, a former Keeper of the Records of Scotland, voiced concerns about the SCA: ‘The Scottish Catholic Archives are of international, not just national significance and should be kept intact under a qualified archivist and in a location where they are freely accessible to those who wish to consult them.’
 
d) Four senior members of the Heritage Commission of the Bishops’ Conference of the Catholic Church in Scotland, the body which advises the Scottish hierarchy, announced on 24 July 2012 that they had resigned, in a letter published in THE SCOTSMAN and THE HERALD. They are Professor Ian Campbell, Lady Catherine Gill, Dr Joseph Marshall and Alasdair Roberts. They made explicit their opposition to the ‘ill-conceived’ and ‘unjustified’ plans to disperse the SCA, and they hinted at similar opposition to those plans from other members of the Commission who had not resigned. They also complained that ‘free debate at Commission meetings has been stifled and relevant documents not tabled’.
 
e) In an interview with the SCOTTISH CATHOLIC OBSERVER for 27 July 2012, Archbishop Mario Conti, President of the Commission, said that he ‘envisages’ staying on in this role even after his imminent retirement as Archbishop of Glasgow (his successor was announced on 24 July), ‘if the other bishops agree’. The architect of the plans to move the pre-1878 section of the SCA and the Blairs Library to the University of Aberdeen (where he has been an honorary professor since 2002), he dismissed opponents of the move as a ‘small but noisy’ group. The prospect that Archbishop Conti may continue to chair the Commission has inevitably infuriated his opponents and seems certain to lead to further escalation of the row.
 
f) Archbishop Conti’s unwillingness to enter into a meaningful dialogue with academics and archivists wishing to express legitimate reservations about the plans to ‘reform’ the SCA, coupled with discourteous and sometimes offensive media tactics by the official spokespersons of the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland, have led to the start of a process where opposition is apparently being taken above the heads of the Scottish hierarchy, and communicated to Rome. Whatever the rights and wrongs of the hierarchy’s ‘strategy’ for the SCA, there can be little doubt that the whole episode has been a public relations disaster for the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland, and that the time is long overdue for positive action by the hierarchy which will safeguard the long-term future of all components of the SCA and begin to mend broken bridges with the academic and archival communities.
 
 
Dr Clive D Field, OBE
email: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
webpage: http://clivedfield.wordpress.com/
 
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