VISIT OF CARDINAL TO SIKH COMMUNITY, EDINBURGH.
Cardinal O'Brien with Granthi Sukhuimer Singh, President Sukhdev Singh and General Secretary Ragbir Singh.
On Sunday 8th February Cardinal O’Brien paid a visit to the Sikh Community in Edinburgh
at their Gurdwara in Leith.
He was welcomed by both the President, Mr Sukhdev Singh and
General Secretary, Mr Ragbir Singh and initially brought into the prayer hall
where he had the opportunity of addressing the large congregation.
Speaking to all those assembled, the Cardinal said:
“Speaking to you here I realise that many of you and your families have been
longer in Scotland than myself – I came here as a young boy from Ireland
shortly after the Second World War.
My relationship with members of the Sikh Community has been the most
friendly – realising even that when you needed a temple for a place of
worship, you purchased this present building when it had been a church of
the Presbyterian Church of Scotland.
On my journeys throughout the world, as well as for meetings here in
Scotland, I have encountered a great desire of members of the world’s great
faiths to live in unity and harmony. I think of my meetings with leaders of
the Muslim Community in Darfur, described as one of the world’s worst
humanitarian disasters. And I think of my very recent visit to
Myanmar/Burma where the population of 50 million is 90% Buddhist, with
Catholic Christians being just a small percentage of the population.
Everywhere, whether here at home in Scotland, or in places where there is
great suffering in different parts of the world, there is that desire to
live and act at peace and unity with one another.
Consequently, it is all the more surprising then when a member of one faith
community speaks against another faith community. That happened just very
recently when a certain Bishop Williamson spoke with regard to the Jewish
Community and the Holocaust, denying or reducing the significance of the
Holocaust. This upset very many members of our Catholic Christian Community
– both lay members as well as priest, bishops, cardinals and even the Pope.
In a recent declaration from the Vatican on 4 February 2009, just a few days
ago, it is stated: “The positions of Bishop Williamson on the Holocaust are
absolutely unacceptable and firmly rejected by the Pope. The Pope himself
stated this on 28 January 2009 when referring to this terrible genocide,
re-stated his full and undoubted solidarity with the Jewish peoples,
receivers of the First Covenant, and he affirmed that the memory of such
terrible genocide must move humanity to reflect on the unpredictable power
of evil when it conquers the human heart”. He also indicated that Bishop
Williamson, in order to be able to function as a bishop in the Catholic
Church, must in an absolute, unequivocal and public way, distance himself
from his present position on the Holocaust, which was unknown to the Pope
when the excommunication on him was lifted. Consequently, I emphasise to
you all that our journey together in peace and harmony must never be
hindered by the actions or words of one man not speaking in any
representative way at all of the faith to which he says he subscribes.
Following on his address, the Cardinal met very many members of the Sikh
Community leaving the prayer hall and joined the community in the Gurdwara
Langar Hall for shared food and a community gathering.
The Cardinal Delivers his address to the Sikh Community.
Cardinal O'Brien and Granthi Sukhuimer Singh meet informally.
Sharan Kaur 11 helps her little sister Satveer aged 2 try on the Cardinal's Gold Ring given to Him by Pope John Paul II.
''Please may I have my ring back Satveer''.
All Photographs by and copyright of Paul Mc Sherry.
Photographs can be purchased from paul.mcsherry@ntlworld.com
07770 393960.