ONE in four Catholic churches in Glasgow will have Orange marches pass near them this season, the Sunday National can reveal.
Further, five churches – almost one in 10 – will have marches go directly past them.
The Archdiocese of Glasgow told the Sunday National that it was “highly regrettable” that their historic requests for marches to avoid Catholic churches were still going unheeded.
Campaign group Call It Out looks to combat anti-Catholic and anti-Irish bigotry, and sometimes organises “presences” outside of churches being marched.
A spokesperson for the group told the Sunday National that they may organise presences outside some of the churches being marched.
They continued to say: “The number of anti-Catholic marches in Glasgow alone which pass directly in front of, or close to Catholic churches is not an accident. There are more than 6000 streets in Glasgow and fewer than 60 have Catholic churches on them. Outside of the central belt, there are areas with only one Catholic church and, lo and behold, the marches go past them.
“If they were stopped from doing this, as they lawfully could be, their organisations would die more quickly than they already are doing which is why they are so intransigent about it.”
A total of 29 marches will pass near churches, and another 10 will pass directly by them.
Marches were determined to be “near” churches if the march route had line of sight visibility to one.
Meanwhile, marches “by” churches were determined to be those that pass directly in front of or alongside them.
The St Teresa of Lisieux Church, in Possilpark, will be the most marched by church in the city, seeing four processions pass it directly and two more travel close by.
One of the direct marches took place yesterday, one will happen on Sunday, June 23, and the remaining two on Saturday, July 6.
For the other direct marches, St Paul the Apostle in Shettleston, and St Robert Bellarmine in Househillwood will see two marches pass by, while St Vincent de Paul and St Anthony’s in Govan will each see one.
A notification was published to the Glasgow City Council website saying that St Alphonsus in Calton – the site of an attack on a priest during a march in 2018 and the verbal abuse of Catholics the following year – was set to be marched on July 6.
When initially contacted by The National, the Orange Order said that the march would indeed process by the church. However, soon after, they said that the march would deviate slightly from its published route, ducking off London Road for a short stretch to avoid processing directly in front of the church.
The new routing along Monteith Place still allows a direct line of sight to the front of the church.
A spokesperson for the Archdiocese of Glasgow said: “The Church recognises the right of Orange marchers to parade as is their custom.
“But the cumulative effect of a large number of these marches on local communities is hard to over-estimate, especially when the behaviour of those following them causes anxiety and distress.
"This is something which the Orange Order needs to address. For many years we have asked that in the timing and routing of these parades, care be taken not to pass Catholic churches, especially when services are being conducted, which inevitable leads to worshippers and passers-by being put in a state of fear and alarm.
"It is highly regrettable that these very modest requests appear to have fallen on deaf ears.”
An Orange Order spokesperson said: “Orange Parades follow traditional routes. Our parade routes are not picked to cause offence, but by and large, are main arterial routes along which successive generations of Orangemen and women have peacefully paraded for centuries.
“Occasionally, as with several places of worship to which you refer, there are some Roman Catholic Churches on these main arterial routes which are unavoidable.
“Processional conditions lay an obligation on organisers to proceed where possible using main aerial routes and to avoid, as far is possible, residential streets.
“The Grand Orange Lodge of Scotland rules are quite clear, and that is we always abide by the local council’s code of conduct on processions which states that no music is played going past a place of worship.”
