BY Daniel Harkins | August 22 | 
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Glasgow Archdiocese calls on councillors to stand with ‘frightened’ Catholics and re-route Orange walk
Glasgow Archdiocese has called on councillors to stand with ‘frightened and previously-attacked’ Catholics and prevent a planned Orange walk from marching past the church at which a priest was assaulted last month.
The Orange Order has rejected calls from Glasgow City Council officers to re-route a parade set to march past St Alphonsus Church in Calton on Saturday August 25.
Ahead of a meeting of the council’s Public Processions Committee tomorrow at 10am, the Archdiocese said it ‘protested in the strongest terms at the gross insensitivity of the proposal and calls on councillors to reroute this march.’
“Following the attack on Canon White just over one month ago, something changed in this city and beyond,” the archdiocese said in a statement. “The First Minister, the Justice Secretary, and the leader of this council spoke out; the media condemned, there was a tidal wave of revulsion on social media, and 83,000 people signed a petition online, to say enough is enough.
“Yet we are here a few weeks later with a request for the Orange Order to parade at the precise point where it proved unable or unwilling to control its followers, and where the good name of Glasgow was shamed before the world. What kind of insensitivity is this?”
The archdiocese said the march organisers had plenty of options to ‘avoid the flashpoint of St Alphonsus or St Mary’s’ but that ‘organisers defiantly refuse to consider them.’
It said the parades committee must now decide where its priorities lie.
“With the protection of the frightened and previously-attacked citizens who frequent St Alphonsus?” the statement asks. “With the good name of the city of Glasgow which was besmirched by the last parade at this site? With the wishes of the 83,000 people who spontaneously signed a protest petition? Or with a small band of marchers who desire only to demonstrate their rights, come hell or high water, irrespective of the impact they have on other people’s lives.”
A council spokesman said: “Glasgow City Council has been unable to reach agreement with Orange and Purple District 37 on a procession due to take place this Saturday.
“Officers asked the organiser to change their proposed route to take the procession away from St Alphonsus’ church, due to community concerns and police advice regarding the potential for disorder, but this request was refused.
“As a result, a meeting of the Public Processions Committee has been called to rule on the proposed march. A report by officials recommends that members re-route the procession away from St Alphonsus.’”
Canon Tom White was allegedly assaulted outside St Alphonsus on Saturday July 7 as an Orange Walk passed the church.
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