Smoky Salmond
SNP LEADER, Alex Salmond, has condemned the explicit bias against Catholics in the British constitution.
Speaking at a lecture at Stirling University last week, he said: "Incredibly, there is still explicit discrimination in our constitution. No Catholic can assume the throne or marry an heir to the throne. We have never had a Catholic Prime Minister of Great Britain."
Guiding Mass MORE THAN 1000 people turned up at Westminster Cathedral last Sunday afternoon for the 50th anniversary of the Westminster Catholic Guides Guild. Mass was celebrated by Bishop Vincent Nichols, auxiliary in Westminster.
Poverty blast
STUNNED BY NEW figures detailing increased poverty levels in Strathclyde region, Cardinal Thomas Winning of Glasgow criticised "what is for too many a dismal reality of poverty". Strathclyde region's latest survey into social trends reveals that 22.8 per cent of the region's population rely on income support.
Not so gay
THE LESBIAN AND Gay Christian Movement has accused Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey of hostility to homosexuals after he strongly denied claims that the Church of England was about to approve ordination of practising homosexuals last week. He also insisted there were no plans to treat marriage and gay relationships as equal. Tories meet up CONSERVATIVE MINISTERS have met Cardinal Winning of Glasgow in what has been seen as an attempt to win Scottish Catholics away from their traditional allegiance to the Labour Party.
This week the Cardinal was in London where he met Scottish Secretary, Ian Lang, and Scottish Health Minister, Lord Fraser. The courtesy meeting was ostensibly to mark Cardinal Winning's election to the College of Cardinals.
Viscount dies
VISCOUNT William Anthony Furness, a former prior of the Order of Malta in England died last Monday at St John's and St Elizabeth's Hospital, London. The Catholic Peer was 66.