Recently closed Catholic churches include St Peter’s, Bellsmyre, Dumbarton, and St Patrick’s Anderston in Glasgow and St Peter’s Seminary, built in Cardross to train new priests, centre, gone to rack and ruin.
By David Kerr
The Kirk is collapsing. In fact, the latest census figures confirm that the Church of Scotland is presently heading for extinction in approximately 25 years or less.
So, where are those many good Christian folk who are becoming spiritually homeless to go? What about the Catholic Church? Perhaps that option seems unthinkable to some, especially if one’s family has had little or no connection with Catholicism since the Scottish Reformation of 1560.
One historically significant, yet somewhat forgotten, figure who did make the journey from the Kirk to the Catholic Church was Henry Grey Graham (1874-1959), pictured.
A son of the manse who descended from a long line of Presbyterian divines, Grey Graham, pictured right, was the Kirk minister who became a Catholic in 1903; a priest in 1907; and a bishop in 1917 upon the Feast of Saint Margaret of Scotland.It was upon being received into the Catholic Church that Henry Grey Graham says he most profoundly encountered the person of Jesus Christ with all the peace, joy and meaning that flows from that divine relationship.
“It was like being transported into a new and unexplored world,” he wrote in his 1911 publication, “From the Kirk to the Catholic Church”.
“I felt as ignorant as a child of real Catholicity, and the experience of all the loveliness and sweetness and holiness of the Church surpassed my wildest imaginings.”
For the last three decades of his life, Bishop Graham was the parish priest of Holy Cross in Crosshill, Glasgow. He never retired from active ministry and was diligent in visiting parishioners’ homes up until his death in 1959 at the age of 85. May he rest in peace.
In the wake of his death, Bishop Graham’s coat of arms was added to the mosaic floor of the sanctuary of Holy Cross bearing, as it does, his Latin motto, “gestate et videte” which is taken from Psalm 34: “Taste and see that the Lord is sweet, blessed is the man who hopes in Him.” Amen.
• To read or listen to “From the Kirk to the Catholic Church” by Bishop Henry Grey Graham, click here: https://www.catholic.com/…/from-the-kirk-to-the…
David Kerr’s article set the ball rolling for a short on-line debate, including the following contributions:
Richard Steinbach
An amazing story David. Just a pity that we couldn’t replicate it many times over, to our advantage.
Ninian Allan Doohan
The dear Bishop “married” my grandparents in 1954. He rejected the Notre Dame Nuns recommendation that the mixed-marriage wedding be refused permissions, on the grounds that my (long lapsed) CofS Gran refused to “turn” after her six weeks of instruction.
The Bishop said that he had taken the same length of instruction and chosen otherwise, and respected her right of conscience.
My Granda was 16 and a choirboy at Holy Cross, my Gran the older woman aged 17. They were married for 55 years before the early than expected passing of Granda Pat, RIP.
Fast forward to 2021 and my octogenarian Gran does eventually “turn” on her death bed at the Suffering General, even choosing her own Confirmation name of St Joan of Arc, at the hands of her grandson, me! Bishop Henry Grey Graham may have been praying for her all this time!
Willy Coupar:
David Kerr: I picked this up under the Facebook page of St Mungo Alloa parish.
See my comment about him
Why was he appointed Auxiliary in Edinburgh?
Why was he passed over for the Archbishopric?
Why did Archbishop McDonald remove him?
Alastair John Fraser: Fascinating story
Willy Coupar: As a “Cradle Catholic” I am not so sure that the collapse of Methodism in England ( and Wales) and of Presbyterianism in Scotland are Good Things.
These two strands of Christianity have been enormous powers for good amongst Christ’s poor and down trodden over centuries.
Paul Gilfillan: An interesting and informative post as always, David.
Robert Gibson: Others you could mention in more recent times are Fr Anthony Ross OP [chaplain to University of Strathclyde] from the Free Presbyterian Church and Fr Walls former CofS Minister. Nevertheless, there should be no hint of triumphalism. The Catholic Church has been shamed through child abuse made worse by cover ups. Furthermore, it is not atheism that is increasing but nones, that is secular belief in nothing. The closure of churches, CofS along with Episcopalian, Methodist but also Catholic is becoming a wound on our built environment. A church building is a liturgical statement of the Body of Christ in the heritage of the community.
Church demolition or conversion to restaurants, night clubs, housing or simply left to become a ruin is a terrible legacy for future generations. Not to mention the service to communities through the use of the local church hall. The CofS is grievously losing members but though only a small number maybe seeking reception into the Catholic Church there is evidence of a movement by some leavers to the evangelical church. Sadly, the statistics relating to infant baptism, by all Christian communities spread a dire warning.
Denis Spitzley: Very interesting yes Catholicism would make an excellent home for any pilgrim
SCOTTISH OR NOT!
David Kerr is a former BBC Scotland reporter, a former SNP candidate and a media officer for the Catholic Church in Scotland and the USA.
Top picture is of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in Edinburgh.