As Labour parliamentarians, we are campaigning for a No vote and we note with concern the advert in your newspaper yesterday from Christians for Independence indicating some named Catholic support for separation.
It is imperative that your readers appreciate that the Catholic faith is not aligned to a political position and it is frankly irresponsible of Dave Thomson MSP who promoted this advert to try to give the impression that it is.
We represent an area that has some of the highest numbers of Catholics in Scotland living here and, like the general population, our constituents are a mixture of No, Yes and don't yet know.
We could of course get together 100 eminent Catholics who are voting No to put the alternative view but we do not believe that to be in the least bit helpful in this debate, since sectarianism is not a reason to vote for or against separation. Recently Pope Francis felt compelled to speak out on the issue of independence and made a clear distinction between independence for emancipation and independence for secession. He said: "All division worries me".
On Friday this small country of ours will have to come together and heed Christ's commandment to "love one another" or we will face an impossible future whatever the outcome. This kind of blatant politicking by some in the Catholic community using religion to add to the discord in our country is at best ill-judged.
Tom Clarke MP, Coatbridge, Chryston & Bellshill, Elaine Smith MSP, Coatbridge & Chryston, and Michael McMahon MSP, Uddingston & Bellshill,
The Scottish Parliament,
Holyrood,
Edinburgh.
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