Scottish Catholic Observer

The Catholic Church and the wider community here in Scotland are no strangers to appeals for help for the vulnerable—the poor, the sick, the needy, the persecuted, the desperate and those who cannot speak for themselves. What is startlingly different about this week’s front page appeal in the SCO? The beneficiaries: Scots themselves who are falling through the widening cracks in our welfare system due to, let’s be honest, cuts.

Archbishop Philip Tartaglia of Glasgow has joined Catholic peer Lord John McFall, faith and union leaders in the new Scottish Leaders Welfare Group in Glasgow. The group aims to appeal to the UK government— ‘those in power in London, because it is there that these decisions still are made’— as ‘they need to look closely at the reality on the ground in places like Glasgow.’

The archbishop, president of the Bishops’ Conference of Scotland, was speaking on Monday after hearing painful personal testimony in Drumchapel from those adversely affected ‘through no fault of their own’ by the UK Government’s welfare austerity.

In the past, the UK, like many developed countries, has often made the distinction between absolute poverty—those with nothing such as victims of natural disasters like this week’s typhoon in the Philippines—and those in relative poverty—families in the UK struggling to make ends meet for example. The cry for social justice is not new. Church groups such as Justice and Peace Scotland, the Knights of St Columba and St Vincent De Paul Scotland highlight and help the plight of the needy here, and even support charities such as Mission Matters Scotland, SCIAF and Mary’s Meals in helping the developing world. It is with great alarm, however, that there is now a growing need to highlight that those on the fringes of our own society are drifting closer to absolute poverty—unable to feed, clothe or house themselves or pay for basic essentials such as heating this winter.

During the current global recession we have heard new, liberal ‘bleeding heart’ terms that are actually almost Dickensian, such as the ‘working poor.’ It can be difficult to be generous, in spirit and materially, never mind being charitable when terms life ‘welfare scroungers’ are coined in the media. But those with nothing have no reserves to fall back in these hard times. The rise of the need for food banks, highlighted by the hundreds of bags dropped off in Glasgow’s George Square after the September independence referendum, shames our society.

This is not a time for our government to say ‘bah humbug,’ nor for us to be divided down national, party political or faith versus secular lines. Scotland’s poorest need help. Now.

Pic: Paul McSherry