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New Catholic church to be built near site of historic battlefield

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Published Date: 14 December 2007
By JOHN ROSS
A CATHOLIC church is to be built at Culloden, near the battlefield where the hopes of the Catholic House of Stuart for a restoration to the British throne died 261 years ago.
The new place of worship will be about a mile from the site of the 1746 battle which ended in defeat for the Young Pretender, Prince Charles Edward Stuart, and his Jacobite army.

Most of the Highland Clans on the Jacobite side were Catholic or E
piscopalian, while the majority of the larger number of Scots on the Hanoverian government side were Presbyterians.

The new building will be the first Catholic church built in Inverness since St Ninian's in 1959. It will also end a 30-year wait by the local congregation for their own premises.

Canon Duncan Stone, the parish priest at St Mary's, in Inverness, identified a two-acre site and bought the land from the Forestry Commission for a new building to meet the needs of the Catholic people who were moving into new housing developments during the 1970s.

The congregation, dedicated to St Columba, held its first mass in the gym at Duncan Forbes Primary School at Culloden with about a dozen people. Today, the congregation is about 120 and will mark its 30th anniversary on 4 January when it is hoped Canon Stone, now 90, will join the celebrations.

The first turf on the building site will be cut next Thursday by Bishop Peter Moran of the Aberdeen diocese, and Don Williams, chairman of the congregational committee. Work is due to start on 7 January and dedication of the church is scheduled for September or October next year. The first wedding has already been booked.

Inverness is the fastest growing city in the UK and its expanding population is being swelled by many Catholics from India, the Philippines and Eastern Europe, including 5,000 from Poland. There are Polish priests in Inverness and Tain as well as Polish sisters from the Society of the Sacred Heart in Inverness.

Over the years, the new parish of St Columba has raised more than £250,000 towards the church, but still needed to find £500,000 to meet the total cost of the project at £750,000.

The Aberdeen diocese will provide a loan for the building and an appeal will be launched to help repay the money.

Father James Bell, spokesman for Aberdeen Diocese, said: "The population of the Highlands has grown significantly over the past 30 years, but in Culloden the population is largely indigenous, native Highlanders and from other parts of Britain."

The church will be designed and built by Uist Building Contractors and Reynolds Architects who built the Catholic Church at Portree, opened in 2005.



Page 1 of 1

  • Last Updated: 13 December 2007 11:26 PM
  • Source: The Scotsman
  • Location: Edinburgh
 
1

Scullion,

Canada 14/12/2007 02:06:54
I think my mother's family, Keir (Kerr), are the only Scots I know who proudly flaunt their ancient part in putting down the Jacobites. As a child, I was confused as to how they could be so against the archtypical kilt wearing highlander.
However, this building of a Catholic church near the hallowed site shows that time is the great decider of all things, not the shedding of blood.
2

Media 1,

cape town 14/12/2007 08:53:01
It is 2007 and we are still building churches! As a species we are regressing as opposed to progressing, and religion has kept us back........
3

The Lurgan Tiger,

14/12/2007 10:13:35
No Media 1, attitudes such as yours have us regressing.

Live and let live.

Try it, you may have a better time
4

Maximus,

Roberton 14/12/2007 14:57:42
#2 and #4, I find your comments very insulting. Please bear in mind that your ancestry probably included a number of Catholics and Protestants - all Christian. If they were regressive empty heads, as the nature/nurture debate goes, then so are you.

#4, In fact the churches do far more for the homeless and penniless than any other organisation in this land.
5

I-Mac,

14/12/2007 15:40:26
#1: As you may now know, more Scots were against the Jacobites than for them, partly for religious reasons. Too many people confuse Highland with Scottish.
6

Calum Crubag,

14/12/2007 17:25:46
#5 - my ancestors probably included animal sacrificing pagans too and all sorts of other superstitious peoples. We should however progress not regress. Why indeed are we still building houses of superstition? Bin religion.
#6 - were most Scots anti Jacobite? One popular thing Charlie did was to anull the Act of Union which only decades previously had caused riots in the cities of Scotland, regardless of relgion.
7

Iain fae Elgin,

London 14/12/2007 18:14:01
£750,000?

What is it, a shed?


And just to add to the debate: nothing wrong with religion, it's the people who ram it down other's throats that are the problem. Or those that use it to further their own political or personal agenda.
8

Johnspain,

Alcobendas 14/12/2007 18:21:32
My ancestor was an ape, I'm not sure about his religious convictions but I think he supported Ian Paisley
9

Frank Brady,

US 14/12/2007 18:57:20
It really is amazing, if not downright frightening, for this former Glaswegian to note how prevalent and still alive is anti-religion, anti-Christian, and, in this case, anti-Catholic bigotry in Scotland. When the Scotsman and the Herald have something on religion, Christianity or Catholicism, out from under assorted slimy stones crawl so many haters and spewers of invective. If these are the readers of the "quality" Scottish newspapers I shudder to think what must appear in the tabloids. When, if ever, is this virulent sectarianism going to be buried in a country that seeks to be thought of as a modern nation? A country, which, if such ghastly comments are representative of those whom one might think of as educated Scots, has barely advanced from its own period of the Dark Ages. La plus ca change, la plus la meme chose.
10

Media 1,

cape town 14/12/2007 19:00:06
# The Lurgan Tiger

If my views on religion are regressive in your eyes, then that is something I can live with.
I chose not to marry myself to an organisation whose past is stained with the blood of countless millions. I just cannot bring myself to bow to such an evil organisation, or any of its spin off religious sects, who are not that much better!
If refusing to buy into these organisations makes me regressive, then I will gladly accept myself as the KING OF REGRESSION! I will bow to no demi god in a robe with a ring that must be kissed whilst kneeling! I will NOT disrespect myself, or the universe we live in by offering such power to a simple man in a robe with a staff......
11

Media 1,

cape town 14/12/2007 19:25:05
Frank Brady

It is not that difficult to understand why people are so anti religion! I remember being a child and wondering how god operated. He was everywhere, I could not escape him, I had to pray to him at night and be sure to NEVER use his name in vein, there was so many rules and fear of him was a real feeling!
You can imagine my disappointment when I eventually read the Old Testament and studied the history of the catholic church. I was disgusted by what I read in the bible, and I was horrified by the history of the catholic church...
As a man who has always abided by the law, been a moral citizen and understood the importance of respect for ones friends, neighbours and family as well as the community at large I could no longer accept the bible or the church. I was forced to denounce religion and god and I will never permit myself to offer worship to such a ghastly entity or organisation ever again!
My children are free to make up their own minds, I do not fill their minds with my ideas, they can decide for themselves what they think of the bible when they eventually come round to reading it!
12

Boberto,

14/12/2007 19:47:56
"One popular thing Charlie did was to anull the Act of Union" (#7)

How did he manage that if he was never monarch?
13

Kitti Kat,

08/01/2008 23:48:30
#8---AMEN!!!
14

Lefty Sharps,

United States 09/01/2008 19:17:29
Here in the US those of us trying to preserve history oppose any building near battlefield sights. Sometimes we fail and a real eye sore is erected. Don't let that happen to the Highlands.

 

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