Scottish Catholic Observer

Change: Some push for it and others rebel against it. Some fear change and others welcome it with open arms. In all instances, our aim for the common good is to ensure that any progress is change for the better, not change for the sake of change, or worse still, a bid to replace the Christian foundations of our society with… nothing.
Like it of not, change is inevitable even with it seems that nothing has really changed at all, such as the outcome of the UK general election last week. And yet the UK ballot has seen the departure from Westminster of leading Catholic MPs in Scotland such as Jim Murphy and Tom Clarke and ushered in a new era with the likes of Patrick Grady and Mhairi Black. Regardless of party label, let’s pray for the new MPs as they find their way in the House of Commons, and pray especially that they do not lose sight of the Christian values and beliefs they stand for. While the challenges our society presents us with change, Catholic teaching does not. And the support and guidance our Faith offers remains constant as governments and political ideologies rise and fall.
This week the Bishops’ Conference of Scotland is asking for a very specific change. In his message for Communication Sunday,
Archbishop Philip Tartaglia of Glasgow, president of the Bishops’ Conference of Scotland, calls on all Catholics to embrace the role of the family as the true building block of a good society, and, in doing so echoes, Pope Francis’ call to put family at the heart of communication. “It is at the heart of the family that we learn communication has a religious dimension in the form of prayer,” Archbishop Tartaglia says in the message. “The children who learn to listen, respect and share at home will become what Pope Francis calls a ‘force for dialogue and reconciliation in society.’”
Many young Scottish Catholics made their First Holy Communion this weekend. Parishes were packed, parties were, in many cases, extravagant. As one wise parish priest told the SCO, however, it is now the duty of the families who gathered together for the First Holy Communion celebrations in all their forms to ensure that the communicants First Communion is not their last.
Before we evangelise in our wider community, let’s make sure a dialogue on the Good News is alive in our own families, our own homes and our own hearts before, and after, this year’s synod on the family. Your national Catholic newspaper is a good place to start.