Scottish Catholic Observer

Cardinal Keith O’Brien, President of the Bishops’ Conference of Scotland, has congratulated Alex Salmond after the Scottish National Party won an unprecedented overall majority in the Scottish Parliament.

After a lengthy campaign, the SNP scored a huge victory in yesterday’s election becoming the first party to gain more than half the seats in the Scottish Parliament and ensuring they would continue to rule at Holyrood for five more years.

The nationalists’ success was matched by the poverty of the results for Scottish Labour and the Liberal Democrats, with both parties having their worst election results in Scotland for fifty years.

Cardinal O’Brien said he was looking forward to working with Mr Salmond’s new administration.

“I offer my congratulations to Alex Salmond on his success in these elections and look forward to working with the new Scottish Government in the years ahead,” he said. “I also offer my commiserations to those parties who have seen their representation in the Parliament fall.”

The cardinal also said that the Church and Scottish Christian’s generally had much to offer civic society.

“The Catholic Church greatly values its collaboration with civic society and tries to offer an ethical foundation for political choices based on objective moral principles,” the Cardinal said. “Inspired by our faith, Scotland’s Christians always seek to promote and encourage dialogue at every level of national life, while respecting the boundaries between religion and politics.”