Scottish Catholic Observer

“It’s a privilege to be in this restored Parliament and to offer, simply, encouragement,” he said. “Public service as a member of parliament, a legislator, as a member of government perhaps, is something worthy, generous, good. To use an old word, noble.”
In his remarks he quoted Pope Francis who has spoken of ‘politicians with soul, people who have chosen deep down to be with others and for others’.

“Commit yourself,” the bishop said. “Don’t listen to those who say ‘that most politicians are worthless’. ‘The aim of a ship’s captain is a successful voyage; of a doctor, health… So the aim of our ideal statesman (or law-maker) is the citizen’s happy life – that is, a life secure in wealt and honourable in its moral character. That is the task I wish him to accomplish – the greatest and best any person can have.’

The bishop also quoted Orcadian writer, George Mackay Brown before the twentieth anniversary of his death next year.

“Culture, law, religion; poets, parliamentarians, pastors: my hope is we can all be people of soul, can sing (even while quarrelling) for Scotland, for humanitas, for tinker and saint – and always honour what’s deepest and truest in us, what Cicero called the divine spark and the Bible the image and likeness of God,” he said