Scottish Catholic Observer

The bishop delivered the Time for Reflection in the Scottish Parliament today and said that ‘even if our politics must be founded on loyalty to our party, our integrity should go further and be rooted in loving service to the whole parliament.’

Holyrood was designed differently from Westminster, Bishop Keenan said, rejecting an ‘adversarial layout with benches confronting each other on both sides for an opened up circle, pointing in to a centre and reaching out, beyond itself, towards consensus.’

This, the bishop said, should be ‘the landscape of the politician’s soul.’

“The good MSP knows he has opponents but hopes to be no-one’s enemy,” he said. “Even if she has to face what, from time to time, has hallmarks of hatred from sections of the people, she does not wallow in persecution complexes.  And, for as long as he is in power, he does not want to govern in a way that prefers his own supporters but with a heart that serves the whole people, so that we all suffer rainy days together and enjoy the sunshine equally and to the full.”