There was a strange posting in the Celtic Football Team blog last Friday. Don’t worry, I haven’t lost my senses (at least, not that I am aware of). I have a stringer who reads these things for me so that I don’t have to. No expense is spared in bringing you the most scintillating stories.
Imagine the scene in a Strathclyde Police Station at the start of a shift.
“What are you going to do today, Superintendent? Sit in your office and manage us as usual?”
“Don’t be such a cheeky b…..r! I’m going out on the job today, a rare situation, I know, but needs must.”
“So where are you going? What is of such importance that you are going to leave your office?”
“I’m going to a football match - the first of many actually. I intend going over several weeks.”
“I didn’t know you were a Rangers’ fan.”
“My tribal allegiance is irrelevant here. I’m going to work, and I’m going to watch several Celtic matches.”
Long, confused silence.
“But I thought the crowd control thing was under … er … control.”
“It is, I’m not going because of crowd control.”
“What is it then?”
“Drugs?”
“Nope.”
“Prostitution?”
“Nope.”
“Theft?”
“Nope.”
“Serious traffic offenses?”
“Rape?”
“Nope.”
“It must be terrorism then. We’ve had a bit of that lately haven’t we?”
“We have, but it isn’t that.”
“Oh come on Super, tell us. What is it? What is it that the tax payer is paying an inordinate amount of money funding your massive salary for? How are you going to spend your valuable time?”
“I’m going to watch the Celtic and Polish international goalkeeper Artur Boruc.”
“So how could saving a few bits of inflated leather from going between two bits of wood be a crime Super? I know, it must be match fixing. He’s in on a betting scam!”
“No, it’s worse than that. It has recently come to my attention that he has been involved in …”
Pregnant pause for dramatic effect.
“What Super? What?”
“In religious observances.”
“No!”
“Yes. He has been seen crossing himself in the tunnel prior to going onto the pitch.”
“No! No!”
“And he crosses himself before each half of the game!”
Strathclyde Police have carried out surveillance on Celtic and Polish international goalkeeper Artur Boruc’s (27) religious observances in recent weeks. At the pre-match police briefing before the Rangers – Celtic game at Ibrox on Saturday, a superintendent from G Division, detailed the findings of their surveillance, including the familiar Sign of the Cross he makes before each half and a private observance he makes in the tunnel, out of public view. The superintendent explained that he, and a representative from the Procurator Fiscals office, who attended the meeting and the game specifically over this matter, would assess Boruc’s religious observance.
Any regular readers of this blog will know that I am no particular fan of any religion or religious denomination and have blogged against certain practices in Christianity, including the Catholic Church at least twice. However, I have also shown my concern that anti-Catholicism is enshrined in the British Constitution. It is this basis in law which, in Scotland, as well as Northern Ireland, makes the divide between Catholics and Protestants so bitter. In Northern Ireland, the battles have been fought with guns and bombs. In Scotland, they are fought at football matches, with Rangers fans being identified with Protestantism, and Celtic fans being identified with Roman Catholicism. However, the anti-Catholicism is much deeper than just football tribalism.
The Artur Borus incident is certainly seen by Celtic fans as just another example of Protestant Establishment bullying and harrassment of a Catholic minority. Responding to the release, in November 2006, by the Scottish government executive of the first major study of 2003 anti-bigotry laws in Scotland, Cardinal Keith O’Brien of St. Andrews and Edinburgh, president of the Bishops’ Conference of Scotland, said that day it is of “grave concern” that Catholics were, during the 18 months reported, “in fact five times more likely to be victims of a religiously aggravated crime” than Protestants.
“Today’s figures show,” the cardinal said, that most “cases do not relate to either football or parades.”
“With this in mind,” Cardinal O’Brien said, “I am forced to question the wisdom of numerous high profile initiatives focusing on football clubs or the constant marginalization of sectarianism in Scotland as little more than drink-fuelled, post-match rivalry.”
“It is,” he stressed, “sadly, deeper, wider and altogether more pervasive than that.”
It is not a coincidence that Catholics were much more likely than Protestants, Jews or Muslims to suffer sectarian abuse, he suggested. “It is not poverty, alcohol or football which underpins most cases of religiously aggravated crime in Scotland, but blatant anti-Catholicism.”
Cardinal O’Brien went on that sectarianism is codified in law through the Act of Settlement of 1701, which prevents Roman Catholics or those who marry Catholics from ascending to the throne. “Our constitution contains legislation which describes my faith as ‘the popish religion’ and defines me and my co-religionists as ‘papists’. That this arcanely offensive language enjoys legal sanction is outrageous … Sectarianism will continue to thrive until the British constitution is changed to amend the settlement act.”
The fact that in 2007 a goalkeeper feels the need to cross himself seems slightly strange to me. However, the fact that in 2007 the police should feel the need to concern themselves with it is even more bizarre. The fact in 2007 that many in Scotland appear blind to, or dismissive of the sectarianism in their midst is tragic and very worrying. And the fact that in 2007, in a country that has anti-discrimination and anti-sexist legislation, a Roman Catholic still cannot succeed to the throne of the United Kingdom, or that a royal male descendant has preference over a female one, just beggars belief!
If you are still awake, take a look at the following video clip:
The problem, in my opinion (pace the Cardinal and others), is not that Catholics or Baha’is or believers in fairies are discriminated against (they may be and, if so, that is to be deplored) but that people are seen in religious terms at all. By what justification do we speak of Borus or anyone else as “a Catholic” rather than as “a goalkeeper” or, better still, “a human being”?
To be honest, religious believers are often at least partially responsible for these divisions by describing themselves as Catholics or Protestants or Muslims rather than simply as people.
There are historical reasons why Catholics are legally discriminated against. If we deplore that, it is because we no longer feel that the reasons for discrimination are still relevant. Perhaps these laws should indeed be repealed but repealing them will be useless as long as supporters of football teams go on calling themselves “Protestants” and “Catholics” and see matches between them in turns of sectarian struggle.
As long as that is the case, maybe the police do have a need to watch the gestures of players in case these are regarded as provocative.
Once again, this sorry tale shows how religion casts a blight on many aspects of life.
A very eloquent, response and well considered. I’m not sure how accurate it is. In my view, it’s irrelevant whether Boruc is doing it to incite or not. The people at fault legally, are the Ranger’s fans who hurl their abuse and point their fingers.
Boruc is merely carrying out a small ritual which he has every right to do, regardless of his intent. This should be the crux of the topic. Any or perspective, in my eyes is pandering to the bigoted section of the Ranger’s support and any other biogotted persons living in our small, but confused country.
[...] absurd that Roman Catholicism is discriminated against. Such official discrimination only fuels religious suspicion and hatred. It is also plainly absurd that in a secular Britain, a church which was founded on one [...]