Canon Morrow memorably remarked: “I have written, typed, printed, published, leafleted, advertised, marched, lobbied, picketed, argued, debated, lectured, phoned, broadcast, counselled, travelled, harassed, begged, borrowed and prayed – and have three million dead babies to show for it.”
Characterised by a capacity for hard work and tenacity, his zealotry in pro-life campaigning could make him uncomfortable company for those who not sharing his views. Arrested several times in the UK after forcibly entering abortion clinics, he was convicted several times for breaches of the peace. He even spent time in Craiginches Prison, Aberdeen, after refusing to pay court fines.
Born the eighth of a dozen children of of Hugh and Catherine Morrow, James Morrow was educated at St Mirin’s in Paisley. Possessed of what one colleague described as a “ferocious” desire to learn, he excelled at school to the extent that his call to holy orders came early, and at 17 he was enrolled in the Scots College, Rome.
Seven years later, in 1958, he graduated, only to take a further honours degree at Glasgow University and to train at Jordanhill College of Education as a teacher.
Assistantships followed in Cathcart, Langbank and Linwood before his teaching talents had him drafted to a staff post at Blairs College, the seminary near Aberdeen. When his time there came to an end, he was appointed to St Andrew’s Parish in Braemar, transforming the old RC school beside the church in 1984 as Humanae Vitae House, the centre for his pro-life work.
In the daily life of Braemar, however, he proved a welcome neighbour, remembered as “a somewhat shy, absolutely decent and genuinely humble man who would go out of his way to speak to all of any faith or none”. But one resident also recalls that if abortion, entered the conversation, he could become “almost fanatical”.
He added: “Jimmy was the stuff of which Christian martyrs were made, and I think he would have quite relished being fed to lions, provided it advanced his chosen cause a little.”
In such a small community, a priestly propensity to being locked up did not go down well. In 1990, Fr Morrow was released from ordinary parochial duties to become a full-time pro-life campaigner. From Braemar, he developed a vigorous publishing and campaigning organisation attacking abortion. Yet his directness sometimes could leave his own sympathisers uncomfortable – for with Fr Morrow, there was no compromise. In 1996, he made an unsuccessful last-ditch attempt to save the life of Janet Johnston, Scotland’s first right-to-die case.
In 2000, Fr James suffered a serious stroke. Resident now in Nazareth House, Aberdeen, he barely relented in his campaigning. He even established links with a diocese in Uganda and visited there, intending to settle, but his health made this impossible.
Five years ago, he published Preaching Life, an autobiographical account based on his collected newsletters written over the previous two decades.
Two years ago, his home diocese of Paisley appointed him an honorary canon of the Cathedral Chapter in recognition of his outstanding and unusual Christian witness, and several months ago he moved from Aberdeen to Cardonald, Glasgow, to be nearer his surviving family. After another stroke, he died in the Southern General Hospital.
Dedicated and articulate, James Morrow in his pro-life cause reached an audience many a professional publicist would have envied.
Pro-life campaigner;
Born October 20, 1934; Died September 18, 2010.
