Not since the persecutions of the Reformation has the Church in Scotland known such bad times. As is the case throughout the western world, Mass attendance is at an all-time low and a spirit of dissent prevails in all areas.
Religious vocations are almost unknown.
Moreover, there is no light at the end of the tunnel and this situation seems regularly to plummet to new depths under the very nose of Scotland's most senior churchman, Cardinal Thomas Winning, Archbishop of Glasgow. In Scotland as a whole, according to the Scottish Catholic Directory, it fell from 283,629 in 1990 to 248,973 in 1995. In the Archdiocese of Glasgow, in the same period, it fell from 84,628 to 70,483. This constitutes 40 percent of the national loss. By 1998 it had further fallento 65,802.