Scottish Catholic Observer

The Scalan seminary was established in the early 18th century following the reformation and the passing of the Penal Laws which prohibited the celebration of Mass in Scotland and forbade the presence of priests in the country.

As part of the annual event, pilgrims from different dioceses travelled to the remote location for Mass (above main). Archbishop Emeritus Mario Conti was main celebrant with a number of priests in attendance, including Fr James Thomson, president of the Scalan Association, Mgr Brian Halloran, past president, Fr Jim Walls from Dunkeld Diocese and Deacon Vincent McQuaid from Aberdeen.

Fr Michael Briody, parish priest at St Michael’s Church in Moodiesburn and secretary of the Scalan Association, was one of those who braved the rain to attend the commemoration and read his homily from a laminated sheet, prepared with the foresight gained from many a wet Scalan Mass.

“Scotland was never more united in all its history than when the vast majority of its people knew and loved the Mass,” Fr Briody said in his homily. “The seminaries at Loch Morar and Scalan came into being fundamentally to ensure the continued celebration of Mass in Scotland. The Mass was worth everything: existing in an illegal and clandestine way, risking arrest and violence; living out here in the middle of nowhere; being away from home and family; sharing cramped conditions with people not of your own choosing; accepting the horrendous weather—most years it was cut off by snow for at least a month, and, personally, I remember attending a committee meeting in this building in July one year and nearly succumbing to hypothermia! The Mass was worth that and a lot more inconvenience and difficulty.”

Speaking after the event, Fr Briody said that the formation of the seminary was an important moment in the history of the Church in Scotland, and stressed that there are lessons to be learned from the Scalan students’ attitudes to Mass.

“Can you imagine a conversation between a student and someone in the 21st century?” he said, reflecting on the often apathetic attitudes towards Mass from modern Catholics. “There would be a real culture shock!”

The Scalan college was born out of the creation and destruction of the first seminary on Scottish soil at Loch Morar. After the Jacobite Rising, that building, erected in 1714, was destroyed and the more hospitable site at Scalan selected as a replacement. Attacked and rebuilt a number of times, the Scalan seminary trained priests for nearly a century, with between 60 and 70 ordained to the priesthood.

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