Letter: Target bigotry

IS ANTI-Catholic hostility as deep and vicious as I've claimed (Letters, 21 February)? Over the past three months I have received more than 2,500 e-mails, voicemails and letters. Most, sadly, attest to the depths and viciousness of pernicious anti-Catholic hostility in Scotland.

Few propose debate or engagement, preferring to indulge in hateful and vituperative abuse. I would not expect the learned readers of The Scotsman necessarily to have much experience of such hostility, but neither would I expect them to deny its existence.

Let's be clear: under no circumstance does critical engagement with the Catholic Church or disagreement with its doctrines constitute sectarianism. The bigotry I refer to is the violent and confrontational intolerance I have catalogued previously. The Catholic Church neither demands nor expects any exemption from criticism.

The Crown Office published a full breakdown of aggravated sectarianism in 2006. Analysis of that data showed that Catholics were six times more likely to suffer a sectarian attack than anyone else.

Additionally, the 2006 data showed conclusively that sectarian crime was not post-match, drink-fuelled rivalry as some have claimed. The offence statistics revealed that 85 per cent of sectarian crime is not football-related.

With a Scottish election in prospect, this is an ideal time to assess and refocus our efforts aimed at eradicating anti- Catholicism. We could start by urging our prosecuting authorities to reveal the detail of the problem we seek to tackle.

We could ensure that public funds target areas of greatest need with programmes devised by those who suffer most. We could even consider repealing the acts of parliament which promote, permit and entrench anti-Catholicism, remembering that no other minority in our land is similarly disadvantaged.

Peter Kearney

Catholic Media Office

St Vincent Place

Glasgow