Vox Clamantis: March 2025 — Lent

Catholics in Scotland make up barely 16% of the population though in the cities this is slightly higher (apart from Aberdeen where it is 9% and Edinburgh 12%). Dundee has 18% and Glasgow the highest with 27%. Of these already small numbers, the number of prac-tising Catholics who follow Tradition is tiny. This makes the practice of public penance such as was practised by the inhabitants of Nineveh, or in Scotland pre-1560, impossible. But our personal penances, though they do not have this public character (and, if we take the words of our Lord in the Gospel on Ash Wednesday, to our benefit), still have great value in the eyes of God. I would, therefore, urge all our parishioners, particularly those within the age range of penitential practices, 14–60, to do as much as they can this year.