Respect for religious freedom is a guarantee of good governance, and the demands of conscience sometimes trump obedience to the State’s laws, the Archbishop of Glasgow has said.

Speaking to newly elected Members of the Scottish Parliament, Archbishop Mario Conti acknowledged that in a pluralistic society, “Christians will want to argue for what is right, but not to impose our understanding of it”. 

He added: “Furthermore the Christian freedom to which [St Peter] points includes, at least implicitly, the freedom to dissent from the mandates of society.” i.e. if there is a conflict between being God’s slave and being a slave of the State.”

“Figures like Thomas More and St John Ogilvie, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela and a host of the less famous stand as constant reminders that sometimes the demands of conscience require obedience to a higher ethic.”

He pointed out that the last census figures showed that almost 70 per cent of Scots considered themselves to be Christian. 

And he added that Christian Churches were equipped to help with the task of integrating newcomers into Scottish society. 

Archbishop Conti said churches were well placed “to welcome into the community those of other faiths and cultures, and, on account of the huge commonalities already shared, are natural agents of social cohesion”.

“Throughout the whole of Scotland there are parishes served by priests and ministers who provide, in practice, a whole range of services from the physical to the social, the cultural to the spiritual.

He urged the newly elected politicians to take on what he called a “virtue agenda”.

He said: “In his teaching Jesus focused on those who delivered what they recognised as the needs of others and blessed them: “Blessed are the merciful, they shall obtain mercy; Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice for they shall be satisfied; Blessed are the peacemakers, they shall be called the children of God.”

“This provides not a ‘rights agenda’ but a ‘virtue agenda’ — and it is a ‘virtue agenda’ that I would like to propose to you as newly elected members of the Scottish Parliament.

“The common good will never be fully served unless those who govern are ambitious for the fostering of virtue in the community, and it is here that the state does well to recognise the support it receives from allied institutions and in return encourages their work.”