EUROPE/SCOTLAND - CARDINAL O'BRIEN CALLS FOR NATIONAL EFFORT TO RE-CHRISTIANISE SCOTLAND: CHRISTIAN MESSAGE HANDED ON AND LIVED FOR ALMOST 2000 YEARS IS THE STANDARD BY WHICH WE SHOULD BE LIVING OUR LIVES AND WHICH WE SHOULD BE HANDING ON TO OUR YOUNG.

Edinburgh (Fides Service) - Cardinal O'Brien calls for national effort to re-Christianise Scotland and reminds Scots of 1600 years of Christian history and urges resistance to tide of secularisation, especially concerning the celebration of Christmas. The Catholic Media Office in Glasgow informed Fides that on Saturday 29 November, the eve of the feast of St Andrew the patron Saint of Scotland, at a National Mass to mark the appointment of Cardinal Keith Patrick O’Brien to the College of Cardinals, Cardinal O’Brien used his homily to deliver a strong defence of Scotland’s Christian values and to urge Christians in other denominations and all people of good will, to do likewise. He concluded with a call, to: “all our peoples to reconsider the basic Christian message which has been handed on and lived in our country for almost 2000 years now” As well as a plea that, greater recognition, be given to; “the feast of our Patron Saint, St Andrew on 30 November each year. Help would be given in this if our Parliament recognised this day, St Andrew’s Day, as a national holiday.” He also urged every local authority in Scotland, to erect a Nativity scene in their area at Christmas, saying; “I think it only appropriate that there be a Nativity Scene at the centre of the celebrations of each of our communities. Without this there is left a gaping hole at the heart of the season of goodwill.”
PS (Fides Service 29/11/2003 EM lines 38 Words: 478)