The Scottish Bishops’ Conference has joined its own voice to that of the Catholic Primate of England and Wales, Cardinal Murphy O’Connor, who asked Catholics last week to turn abortion into one of the crucial issues of the electoral campaign for the general elections due to be held on 5 May (see SIR no. 21/2005). In an article published in the Scottish daily “The Scotsman”, Cardinal Keith O’Brien, president of the Scottish bishops, recalled there have been some six million abortions in Great Britain since 1967 and that the moral values of society as a whole are placed in discussion by the practice of abortion. An identical appeal has also been made by the Scottish episcopate itself, which has asked Catholics to make sure that the right to life is defended during the forthcoming elections. Other issues that ought to be at the centre of the electoral campaign, according to the Scottish bishops, include freedom from poverty, aid to the countries of the Third World and European cooperation, fundamental for the peace of mankind.
