Last night, I had one of the weirdest dreams ever. Well, when I say weird, I actually mean interesting in terms of subject matter. It’s not often I dream about meaningful stuff, so it has spooked me slightly, but it’s really relevant so I felt it warranted its own blog posting.

Here’s a summary of the dream. Now, bear in mind that I did wake up several hours ago, so some of the finer details are a bit sketchy, but you’ll get the gist.

It all began with me hopping on a number 35 bus in Edinburgh to get up town. At the back of the bus, I spotted recently disgraced Cardinal Keith Patrick O’Brien, the former head of the Catholic Church in Scotland. He was attempting to remain as incognito as possible. I’m happy to say, however, that I feel he had a fairly good working relationship with my family, so I felt comfortable enough to approach him.

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Cardinal Keith Patrick O’Brien

After a rather surprised greeting of “wee janny!” (he used to relate everyone in my family to my dad’s job at St Joseph’s Primary School- my mum was Mrs. Janny, and I was wee Janny…), he invited me to sit down beside him. From this point in the journey, I simply opened my heart to him. I explained how the allegations made against him, and his subsequent admission had rocked my faith to its core. I told him the reason I had become so upset was because the allegations were so close to home, and because I had such a profound level of respect for him.

After letting me say my piece, he turned and looked at me straight in the eye, before apologising profusely to me on a personal level for letting me down so badly. The dream ended as I vowed to stand by him and maintain my respect for him, no matter what.

I’m no Freudian psychologist or dream analyst, but I know for a fact this dream reflects my deep-set fears about the future of the Catholic Church in Scotland. On Saturday, I read in the newspaper that the Vatican will not be appointing any bishops to the 3 vacant positions in Scotland until any investigations into Cardinal O’Brien’s actions are carried out. This is of course a good thing, vetting everyone to make sure there’s no repeat of a scandal like this again. But the investigation could take an age, meaning the leadership of the Church in Scotland is at a dangerous level. The Church in Scotland is crumbling and if we don’t do something soon, there won’t be any Dioceses for bishops to be appointed to.