Theologian claims we should celebrate Knox, not the Pope

A LEADING Free Church theologian has criticised the Pope's visit and suggested Scots are "suckers for funny costumes" and "love to see old men dressed in ancient Roman togas".

The Rev Professor Donald Macleod, who retired last month as principal of the Free Church College on The Mound, also accused the Scottish Government of "airbrushing" the Protestant Reformation out of history while celebrating the visit by the Pope.

Benedict XVI is due to fly into Edinburgh on 16 September at the start of a four-day visit to the UK. He will meet the Queen at the Palace of Holyroodhouse and drive through the city centre in his Popemobile before heading to Glasgow for a mass in Bellahouston Park.

Professor Macleod claimed there was "a downside" to the Pontiff's visit, and not just the increasing cost - now put at 12m - at a time when public services are facing savage cutbacks and thousands of Scots are facing the prospect of unemployment.

But it is the timing of the visit - co-inciding with the 450th anniversary of the Scottish Reformation - that has most angered Professor Macleod.

The Reformation was Scotland's formal break with the Papacy and the re-establishment of the church along Reformed lines.

Prior to that, Scotland was effectively ruled by Mary of Guise, who had governed in the name of her absent daughter Mary, Queen of Scots - then also Queen of France.

In his weekly column in the West Highland Free Press, Professor Macleod said: "On the face of things the forthcoming papal visit to Britain should be an unqualified publicity triumph, offering a heady mixture of theatre, religion and politics.

"It is hard to avoid the conclusion that the event was deliberately timed to clash with the 450th anniversary of the Scottish Reformation.

"Ironically the spoiling tactic has turned out to be entirely unnecessary. Our SNP Government has no intention whatever of acknowledging Scotland's debt to the Reformation, and even less of honouring John Knox, the greatest of all our nation-builders, but now safely airbrushed out of our history.

"That he saved us from national economic ruin, laid the foundation of our national system of education and fired us with an aversion to tyranny, now counts for nothing. Our Government is in Knox-denial

"Why does secular, humanist Scotland so warmly entertain Catholicism, with all its authoritarianism, and yet register terror at the mere mention of the religion of Knox?

"Is it just that we're suckers for funny costumes, and love to see old men dressed in ancient Roman togas?"

The Church of Scotland devoted a special session of its General Assembly in May to marking the anniversary of the Reformation, but there has been little other public recognition of the occasion.

Historian Professor Tom Devine, a Catholic, has also described as "scandalous" the low-key way the 450th anniversary is being marked.

A Scottish Government spokesman said: "The Scottish Government is working with the Church of Scotland and others to ensure that this important anniversary is properly commemorated, and we will make further announcements in due course."