Page 33 - LOTN Issue 45

FAITH AND CULTURE

to be strong and virtuous men, we cannot and should not
do it without Him.
There is another factor then to help men on their journey
– we need taught what it is to be a man of God. We can
get lots of guidance from good peer role models but we
also need information, teaching that is true to the issues
affecting men and applied to our everyday lives. The
Highland Gathering Men’s Conference attempts to do this.

The Conference
The conference dealt with issues such as money, mental
health, marriage, pornography and fatherhood. We also
had talks on St Joseph by Bishop Keenan. Bishop Hugh
Gilbert spoke about Mary in a man’s life and a great
selection of lay men covered topics like humility, unity and
for one contributor – how being Catholic made him a man.
We also heard from Fr Nicholas Blackwell, a Carmelite friar
and priest based in New York State and Sam Baker, founder
of Catholic Man UK and Ireland. In the initial stages of
organising this event I envisaged it as a live event which
would be held at St Columba’s, Culloden, Inverness. I would Saint Joseph, a role model for Christian fatherhood
have been happy if 20 men had turned up. However, Covid (Raffaello Sorbi, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)
restrictions meant we had to think again and it developed
into a wholly online affair. Consequently, this opened up Dubai.
opportunities to bring in a variety of speakers and to reach Additionally, I have had the pleasure of talking to a few
larger audience. men outwith the local deanery and indeed diocese who
The conference talks are all available on the conference’s want to start their own group. This is what I really wanted
dedicated YouTube channel: https://www.youtube. to see – a growing movement of men’s groups popping up
com/channel/UCrnp0AkM97GesZiQNKEhD3g/. around this Diocese and across the UK to help men be all
You can also access the talks from our website: https:// God has called them to be.
roughboundsmedia.wixsite.com/website/the-high- If you want to join a men’s group in the Inverness and
land-gathering Dingwall area please get in touch. There is also a men’s
Since the YouTube Channel was launched the "thumbnail" group that meets in Elgin/Keith. I would also recommend
advertising the Conference was seen by over 7000 people visiting the Catholic Man UK website at https://www.
of which 1395 people actually looked at the channel itself. catholicman.uk/ for lots of resources and help on how to
Over 100 hours of the talks were watched by those who set up a men’s group. Likewise, I can be of assistance if you
"clicked" on a talk. Geographically the vast majority of wish.
people watching were from the UK but we also had viewers
from the US, India, Belgium, Poland, Ireland and one from You can get in touch with Eric at: eth217@protonmail.com

Gaelic was the key to chaplain to Lady Gordon at Aboyne Castle while acting as

an itinerant missionary. A new phase opened in the 1670s
creating a successful through Fr Henry Forsyth SJ, a convert who learned Gaelic
in Tipperary. He found only two Catholics in the Braes of
Braemar Jesuit Mission Mar, telling one of them "there is no churchman between
this and Castle Gordon [at Fochabers] but myself. I have
some few in Glenlivet, very few in Strathavon. . ."
Gaelic was the key to creating a Braemar Mission. The Society’s
BY ALASDAIR ROBERTS & ANN DEAN educational emphasis enabled priests who followed to learn it.
They created a literate version in their baptismal register, fully
presenting families and places. Robert Seton early acknowledged
ixty years after the Reformation Parliament the his ‘want of skill in the vernacular’ and withdrew to Glengairn,
Society of Jesus finally abandoned hope of a then Aboyne. John Innes surmounted the challenge: "It caused
Scottish Counter-Reformation led by nobles like me immense toil and much time to learn to speak the extremely
Sthe Earl of Huntly. They still served high class difficult language of the country but I am master of it now."
houses, however, with several around Edinburgh. Pastoral Likewise Hugh Strachan had been "entirely ignorant of my
work in the Highlands was limited to gentry. Fr John Leslie native language, which, however difficult it is to learn, our Lord
celebrated Christmas with his married sisters in Glenlivet has enabled me to acquire so completely that now I am able
and died after returning through snow to the family to read, write, preach and catechise in the vernacular. I have
house near Elgin. His brother Andrew, also a Jesuit, was
composed a catechism of controversy in the Highland tongue,
Page 33