The Catholic Church in Scotland last night accused the Foreign Office of a lack of respect and Vatican sources warned the papal visit to the UK could be cancelled after the publication of an internal memo mocking Pope Benedict.

The Foreign Office was forced to issue a public apology to the Vatican while Sir Peter Ricketts, the permanent under-secretary, contacted Cardinal Keith O’Brien, the head of the Catholic Church in Scotland, to apologise personally for any offence caused by the document.

The memo joked the Holy Father could open an abortion clinic, launch a range of condoms or sing a charity duet with the Queen. The document also suggested Benedict XVI could show his hard line on the sensitive issue of child abuse allegations against Roman Catholic priests by “sacking dodgy bishops” and launching a helpline for abused children.

And last night a senior Vatican source said the incident could threaten the papal visit in September, saying: “It’s possible the trip could be cancelled as this matter is hugely offensive.”

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At St Mary’s Cathedral in Edinburgh the head of the Catholic Church in Scotland, Cardinal Keith O’Brien, apologised to abuse victims, saying: “Crimes against children have indeed been committed, and any Catholics who were aware of such crimes and did not act to report them brings shame on us all.”

During his Easter sermon, Archbishop Nichols told worshippers at Westminster Cathedral that to appreciate the Easter message, “we have to begin with our own sin and shame”.

He said: “In recent weeks the serious sins committed within the Catholic community have been much talked about.

“For our part, we have been reflecting on them deeply, acknowledging our guilt and our need for forgiveness.”

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Pope Benedict XVI will visit Scotland and England in September in a four-day visit combining preaching and diplomacy, Buckingham Palace announced Tuesday.

British officials described it as an unprecedented “papal visit with the status of a state visit,” though some of the usual trappings laid on for a visiting head of state will not be offered to the pope. An earlier visit by Pope John Paul II in 1982 was a pastoral visit only.

During his visit Benedict plans to conduct a public mass in Glasgow’s Bellahouston Park, where some 300,000 people swarmed a mass celebrated by Pope John Paul II during his pastoral visit in 1982. John Paul’s visit was strictly to visit his flock ”” rather than as a head of a state. John Paul was not received by the queen.

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Pope Benedict XVI will visit Scotland and England in September in a four-day visit combining preaching and diplomacy, Buckingham Palace announced Tuesday.

British officials described it as an unprecedented “papal visit with the status of a state visit,” though some of the usual trappings laid on for a visiting head of state will not be offered to the pope. An earlier visit by Pope John Paul II in 1982 was a pastoral visit only.

During his visit Benedict plans to conduct a public mass in Glasgow’s Bellahouston Park, where some 300,000 people swarmed a mass celebrated by Pope John Paul II during his pastoral visit in 1982. John Paul’s visit was strictly to visit his flock ”” rather than as a head of a state. John Paul was not received by the queen.

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The Right Rev David Chillingworth accused the Scottish Secretary of doing a “grave disservice” to religion by suggesting it could be “shrink-wrapped” to fit the manifesto of a political party.

His comments came after the leader of Scotland’s Roman Catholics accused Labour of an “unrelenting attack on family values” and warned the Pope could give the party “hell” on his state visit later this year.

They were both responding to a speech last week in which Mr Murphy tried to woo religious voters by promising their concerns would be reflected in Labour’s policy agenda.

The Scottish Secretary argued Labour was founded on the principles of Christian socialism and had led the trade union struggle for working class rights.

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Listen to it all from the BBC (about 2 3/4 minutes).

Britain might soon have its first female Anglican bishop, serving the 38,000-member Scottish Episcopal Church, part of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

The Rev. Alison Peden, 57, is one of three candidates for the post of bishop of Glasgow and Galloway. The election is scheduled for Jan. 16.

Observers say that if Peden is elected it is likely to increase pressure on the neighbouring (Anglican) Church of England to allow the appointment of women bishops.

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AKMA has a nice picture up–check it out.

There used to be a time when churches could rely on being filled on a weekly basis, come rain or shine.

But dwindling congregations and ageing members have forced churches to look for ways to innovate and modernise in an attempt to get the Christian message out.

And so members of Greyfriars Parish Church in Lanark have decided to exchange pews for bar stools in an attempt to spread the festive message with a Christmas Eve carol-singing session at a local pub, the Clydesdale Inn.

Their minister, the Rev Bryan Kerr, said that the church had looked at ways of getting their message out beyond the church.

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Traditionalist Anglicans in Scotland are setting up a new community in Edinburgh. This is being made possible because of a generous offer from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St Andrews and Edinburgh to provide a place of worship for their first service this Christmas Eve.

Canon Len Black, Regional Dean of Forward in Faith Scotland, the organisation which represents orthodox Anglicans world-wide, said, “This move has come about because of the rapid drift of the Scottish Episcopal Church away from the traditional faith, morals and practices of the universal Church. We are most grateful to Cardinal Keith O’Brien for the generosity he has shown us in making a place of worship available, not just for Christmas but in the months ahead, as we seek to serve those Episcopalians who look to us for spiritual and sacramental support.”

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Oxford graduate Dr Alison Peden has been chosen as one of three candidates for the vacant episcopal see of Glasgow and Galloway in Scotland. If she is elected on 16 January, she will become the UK’s first woman bishop. It would in many ways be fitting for Scotland to be the first UK province to have a woman bishop. The US had the first one in the world, Barbara Harris, who incidentally was nominated back in the 1970s by Mary Glasspool, now lesbian bishop-elect in Los Angeles. Scotland and the US church go back generations. After the American Revolution, the Bishop of London, who had previously ruled over the American church as if it was a far-away London parish of little importance, refused to give newly-independent US Episcopalians a bishop of their own. So they went to Scotland, which duly obliged. The surprising thing about Scotland is that it has taken this long to put a woman on a shortlist after their General Synod voted in favour back in 2003.

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An ecumenical church service was held before the march in St Leo the Great Roman Catholic Church in Beech Avenue, Bellahouston.

It was attended by the Right Reverend Bill Hewitt, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, Cardinal Keith O’Brien, leader of the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland and the Most Reverend David Chillingworth, Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church.

Mr Hewitt said: “We need to be sure that the negotiators gathered in Copenhagen are aware of our support and our belief in the importance of their task.”

Cardinal O’Brien added: “People from all faiths and none will suffer the effects of catastrophic climate change if world leaders fail to deal with the problem.”

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A retired Church of Scotland minister is calling for assisted suicide to be legalised so that patients could end their lives “in an ethical and merciful manner”.

Contradicting the Church’s official stance on the issue, the Rev Dr John Cameron praised the work of Dignitas, the Swiss-based assisted suicide group, and accused Britain of “exporting” its ethical dilemma overseas.

Writing in the Kirk’s official journal, he said Dignitas provided a much needed service for individuals who want to “die as they have lived”. He also said NHS claims that palliative care was available for all in Britain’s hospitals were an “outrageous untruth”.

The Church of Scotland, however, opposes Independent MSP Margo MacDonald’s controversial End of Life Choices Bill that seeks to legalise assisted suicide in Scotland.

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In 1952, Sir John was appointed chairman of the department of respiratory diseases and tuberculosis at the University of Edinburgh, amid a tuberculosis epidemic in Scotland. Three years earlier, researchers in Britain reported that combining streptomycin with a newer medicine, para-aminosalicylic acid, could reduce the development of drug resistance. To this mix, Sir John added isoniazid, a new drug that became available shortly after his arrival in Edinburgh.

The third drug was the charm. Through careful monitoring, he devised a regimen that called for starting patients on all three drugs and then stopping streptomycin, which can cause hearing loss, after several months. For more than a decade, until it was replaced by a cocktail of newer and more powerful drugs, Sir John’s three-drug regimen was the standard treatment for tuberculosis.

“The treatment principles he developed are the ones we are using today,” said Dr. Mario C. Raviglione, director of the World Health Organization’s Stop TB department. “They are the model for cancer and for H.I.V. His legacy is quite significant.”

I caught this one yesterday coming up to Boston on the plane–a terrific piece which illustrates well how medical research really works. Read it all–KSH.

The Catholic Archbishop of Glasgow Mario Conti has commented on the Vatican’s recently announced proposal to welcome Anglican communities into full communion with the Catholic Church. Noting that the faith of individual believers is also important, he said he has long thought such an offer would be “a way forward” for some Anglicans.

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