Scottish Catholic Observer

When the push towards the Canonisation of a Scot is lead by the Venerable’s God-daughter then we realise just how recently the person in question walked among us. This is the case with the Venerable Margaret Sinclair, whose God-daughter recently spent time with Archbishop Leo Cushley of St Andrews and Edinburgh ahead of the annual Margaret Sinclair Pilgrimage that will take place Sunday September 20.

Norah Smith, 95, reminds us all not only of the life and sacrifice of Margaret Sinclair, but also that she was an ordinary person who went onto do amazing things.

Pope Benedict XVI called us all to be the saints of the 21 century when he visited our shores in 2010. Let’s hope and pray that Margaret Sinclair leads the way in that endeavour. After, all St John Paul II stated that she ‘could well be described as one of God’s little ones.’

Japan, the only country to have been attack by nuclear bombs, still prays for peace 70 years on. Pope Francis has used the 70th anniversary of the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the US as an opportunity to call for a complete ban on nuclear weapons throughout the world.

While humankind cannot disinvent the atomic bomb, we can do everything in our power to prevent future use of nuclear weapons. We can pray that the 70th anniversary of the nuclear attack on Japan brings the nine known countries in the world with nuclear weaponry—including Britain—around the table for talks and action.

The arts, one of the last escapes from political correctness, remains an avenue for provocative stimulation but still has to be responsible and fair. Minstrel shows, for example, would be frowned upon these days due to racist overtones. The irresponsible bias in shows such as Dicing with Dr Death at Edinburgh Fringe, therefore, shows the need for debate on the ethics and morals of suicide rather than the practicalities—something sadly lacking by all accounts in Australian right-to-die activist Dr Philip Nitschke’s ‘performance’ in the capital, even though he too has trouble with actually killing someone.

His show enjoyed publicity at the Fringe Festival that even money cannot buy, a visit by Police Scotland. Despite this he ‘plays’ in a half-empty venue even at peak times. The recent informed, lengthy and soul-searching debate on assisted suicide by MSPs here, which ultimately rejected any change in the law, was a far more productive and by-and-large balanced look on the subject. Let’s pray it has the greater influence in our society.