Increasing rates of Anti-Catholicism in Scotland has become a mounting concern for the faithful in the country, for which the Catholic leaders have urged the government to take sudden action to combat the trend. There were a total of 719 charges related to religious prejudice in Scotland in 2016-17 which shows an increase from 642 in the period of 2015-16. Roman Catholicism was the most frequent target of abuse, making up 57% of these charges.
As reported by Catholic News Agency, Peter Kearney, director of the Scottish Catholic Media Office, in a forthcoming essay for the Scotsman, remarked that “Were any other type of crime to be dominated so completely by a single type of behavior, we might expect a targeted strategy to emerge, promoted by the authorities as a response to a particular problem.”
Kearney emphasized about the recent exchanges in Scottish Parliament which indicated the government’s unwillingness to adopt a name and shame approach to the religious hate crimes.
Source: www.catholicnewsagency.com
