Scottish Prelates Capitulate to Abortion Tyranny in Feeble Protest
EWTN News reports on January 7, 2026, that Scottish bishops denounced Scotland’s Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) Act 2024. The legislation imposes 200-meter “buffer zones” prohibiting prayer vigils, leafleting, or “influencing” abortion decisions near 30 facilities. The bishops decry the law as “disproportionate and undemocratic,” claiming it restricts free speech and conscience while emphasizing they “do not condone harassment.” The article notes 74-year-old Rose Docherty faced charges under the law for silently holding a sign reading: “Coercion is a crime; here to talk, only if you want.” Scottish Greens MSP Gillian Mackay admitted the law could criminalize home prayer if visible from public spaces. The bishops warn the law suppresses crisis pregnancy alternatives and rejected amendments for chaplain exemptions.
Naturalism’s War Against the Divine Order
The Scottish law exemplifies regnum hominis (the reign of man) overthrowing regnum Christi (the reign of Christ). Pius XI’s Quas Primas (1925) declares: “Nations will be reminded by the annual celebration of this feast [Christ the King] that not only private individuals but also rulers and princes are bound to give public honor and obedience to Christ.” By contrast, the Scottish parliament enshrines Moloch worship through “buffer zones” shielding child-sacrifice centers from Christian witness. The bishops’ tepid protest ignores the theological essence of this conflict: abortion constitutes homicidium innocentium (murder of innocents), demanding unequivocal resistance, not procedural quibbles over “disproportionate” penalties.
Silent Complicity With Apostate Governance
The bishops’ statement lamely insists “the Catholic Church does not condone harassment” — a cowardly concession to the regime’s framing. This echoes the conciliar sect’s surrender to secular hegemony. Pius IX’s Syllabus of Errors (1864) condemns proposition 55: “The Church ought to be separated from the State, and the State from the Church.” Yet these Scottish prelates operate within a schismatic ecclesial structure that recognizes the British Crown’s supremacy over religious expression. Their appeal to “democratic debate” ignores St. Pius X’s warning in Lamentabili Sane (1907) that Modernists reduce faith to “a sum of probabilities” (Proposition 25), bargaining with truth itself.
Criminalizing Charity: The Totalitarian Logic
The law’s criminalization of silent prayer and home displays exposes its anti-Christian animus. Gillian Mackay’s admission — that prayer near a window becomes criminal “depending on who’s passing” — reveals the regime’s subjectivist tyranny. This violates natural law affirmed in Quas Primas: “The empire of our Redeemer embraces all men… [and] the State is happy not by one means, and man by another; for the state is nothing else than a harmonious association of men.” When the state bans citizens from advocating for the unborn, it severs itself from divine order. The bishops’ failure to condemn this apostasy — instead lamenting lost “democratic debate” — confirms their captivity to conciliar pluralism.
The Missing Anathema
Nowhere do the bishops identify abortion as crimen nefandum (unspeakable crime) warranting excommunication latae sententiae under Canon 2350 of the 1917 Code. Their Epiphany reference to the Christ Child rings hollow when they withhold the full truth: abortionists and complicit legislators incur automatic excommunication. St. Pius V’s Regnans in Excelsis (1570) excommunicated Queen Elizabeth I for far lesser crimes against life and faith. Today’s shepherds, however, fear offending the British Crown more than God. The article’s focus on 74-year-old Docherty’s arrest obscures the real scandal: bishops who refuse to wield spiritual arms against genocide.
Conclusion: Shepherds Who Flee the Wolves
While Rose Docherty stands charged for a sign offering help, Scottish prelates issue press releases that tacitly accept the regime’s right to gag the Church. Their statement embodies the conciliar betrayal prophesied by Pius IX: “The Roman Pontiff can, and ought to, reconcile himself, and come to terms with progress, liberalism and modern civilization” (Syllabus, Proposition 80). Until these bishops renounce their communion with antipopes and demand Scotland’s submission to Christ the King, their protests remain theatrical gestures aiding the very tyranny they pretend to oppose.
Source:
Scottish bishops denounce ‘buffer zone’ law (ewtnnews.com)
Date: 07.01.2026