| The Most Reverend Mario Conti |
|
|---|---|
| Archbishop of Glasgow | |
| Archdiocese | Glasgow |
| Enthroned | 2002 |
| Predecessor | Thomas Joseph Winning |
| Orders | |
| Ordination | 26 October 1958 (Priest) |
| Consecration | 3 May 1977 (Bishop) |
| Personal details | |
| Birth name | Mario Joseph Conti |
| Born | 20 March 1934 Elgin, Moray, Scotland |
| Denomination | Roman Catholic Church |
| Parents | Louis Joseph Conti and Josephine Quintilia Conti (née Panicali) |
| Previous post | Bishop of Aberdeen, 1977–2002 |
Mario Joseph Conti (born 1934) is the current Catholic Archbishop of the Metropolitan see of Glasgow, Scotland.
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Mario Joseph Conti was born on 20 March 1934, in Elgin, Moray,[1] son of Louis Joseph Conti and Josephine Quintilia Conti (née Panicali). He studied for the priesthood at The Scots College, Rome and was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Aberdeen in the Church of San Marcello al Corso, by Archbishop Luigi Traglia on 26 October 1958.
After a period as Assistant Priest at St Mary's Cathedral in Aberdeen, Fr Conti served as parish priest of the most northerly Roman Catholic parish in the UK mainland, St Joachim's and St Anne's (Wick and Thurso respectively) in Caithness from 1962 to 1977. He was appointed bishop of Aberdeen on the 28 February 1977, succeeding Michael Foylan. He was consecrated to that post by Cardinal Gordon Gray on 3 May 1979. He was awarded the degree of Doctor of Divinity honoris causa by the University of Aberdeen in 1989, being the first Catholic priest to be so honoured since the Reformation.
While as bishop of Aberdeen he was forced to reject claims that he sought to protect the interests of nuns and priests above those of children who said they had been abused. It followed the conviction of Sister Marie Docherty on four charges of cruelty towards girls at Nazareth House childrens' homes in Aberdeen and Midlothian in the 1960s and 1970s. The Liberal Democrats MP for Gordon, Malcolm Bruce, called on the church to apologise to Sister Marie's victims, but Conti resisted any public apology.[2]
Bishop Conti was translated to the archdiocese of Glasgow on 15 January 2002, succeeding the late Thomas Winning. He took possession of the archdiocese on 22 February 2002. Pope John Paul II bestowed the Pallium on Archbishop Conti on 29 June 2004, the Feast of Saint Peter and Saint Paul. Archbishop Conti is a member of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.
He was preceded by Cardinal Thomas Joseph Winning.
In 2004, he accused the BBC of "rudeness and prejudice" in its coverage of the Roman Catholic Church and of "gross insensitivity" at the time of Pope John Paul II's silver jubilee. He said that the 25th anniversary of the pontificate of Pope John Paul II and the beatification of Mother Teresa had been marked with a documentary entitled Sex and the Holy City, which looked at the effectiveness of condoms in the fight against AIDS. He also questioned the plans to broadcast a cartoon called Popetown, which satirised the Pope as a childish pensioner and he accused Newsnight Scotland of conducting a "sneering and aggressive" interview on the church's position on shared campus schools. The National Secular Society described the claims as "grossly anti-democratic and dangerous". A spokesperson for the BBC said: "We are always keen to ensure that all faiths are reflected across our output and are reported accurately.[3]
In 2003, Conti publicly accused the UK Government of paving the way for human cloning. He claimed the first step on the "nightmarish journey" had been the acceptance of test tube babies or invitro fertilisation (IVF) in 1978. His comments were rebuked as "shocking" by the fertility expert Robert Winston. "If this were not enough, he has taken the astonishing course of comparing the kind of research conducted by people like myself with what was carried out under the evil regime of the Nazis. He has the effrontery to compare the life-giving work we are attempting with the appalling events of the Holocaust and the liquidation of the Jews."[4]
Conti has persistently opposed any extension of legal rights to gays and lesbians living in Scotland. In 2000, h signed a public letter alongside Cardinal Winning which called for the retention of Section 28 of the Local Government Act despite efforts by the government to repeal. The letter argued that it was important to prevent the funding and promotion of educational material overtly promoting homosexual practice in schools.[5]
In 2006 Conti publicly voiced his views on the case of nine Scottish firefighters who had been disciplined for refusing to attend a gay pride event, saying it was wrong of to expect them to participate. Not because homosexual people should not be given fire safety advice, but because the men felt uncomfortable about the 'kiss-a-fireman' campaign allegedly planned for the event.[6]
Also in 2006, Conti called on MSPs to reject the Civil Partnerships (Scotland) Bill, which would provide unmarried couples in "committed" relationships with equality in areas like inheritance, pensions and bereavement saying, "It is not homophobia and we have no gripe against homosexuals per se but we believe that the homosexual relationship is subversive."[7] He later criticised government proposals to permit the adoption of children by gay couples.
Later that same year he preached a sermon which put forward the view that the moral teaching of the Church was being undermined. In part of the sermon, he criticized the UK's civil partnerships legislation which had recently been introduced. He also mentioned the Catholic Church’s traditional teaching, stating that homosexual acts cannot be considered equivalent to marital love between a man and a woman. After Patrick Harvie (a Green MSP and advocate of LGBT equality) heard about the Archbishop's sermon, he wrote to the Chief Constable of Strathclyde Police asking for the Force to give clarity regarding the criteria for using breach of the peace charges in relation to comments which might be seen to incite hatred on grounds of sexual orientation.[8][9]
More recently, in October 2010 he sent a public letter to all Scottish parishes uring Catholic parishioners to oppose Government plans to give gay couples the right to marry.[10] He warned that the move would create “larger divisions” in society. This prompted the Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie to suggest that the Catholic church was trying to control opinion.[11]
In 2009, Conti was vocal in supporting the release by the Scottish government of Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, who had been imprisoned for his part in the Lockerbie bombing.[12] Conti argued that, "I personally, and many others in the Catholic community, admired the decision to release Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi on grounds of compassion which is, after all, one of the principles inscribed on the mace of the Scottish Parliament by which Scotland's government should operate."
In 2004, Conti criticised Scottish Executive proposals to tackle sexual health problems among young people. He argued that the draft strategy placed too much emphasis on medical treatment and not enough on spiritual or social worries. Concern over homosexuality being perceived as equal to heterosexual relationships and the absence of references to marriage in the report were also highlighted by the archbishop.[13]
In 2007, in disobedience to the Pope, he issued directives that limited the application of the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum in his diocese. This made it more difficult for priests to freely celebrate the mass according to the 1962 missal in Glasgow.[14]
| Catholic Church titles | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Michael Foylan |
Bishop of Aberdeen 1977–2002 |
Succeeded by Peter Antony Moran |
| Preceded by Thomas Joseph Winning |
Archbishop of Glasgow 2002–Present |
Incumbent |
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