An Introduction to Applied Linguistics

EXERCISE 4 (ON CHAPTER 4)
The following extract makes a connection between language and cultural values. To
what extent are they connected? If you were involved with the selection of the new
bishop would you be in favour of a Gaelic speaker or not. What would be your
reasons?
4.1 Gaelic-speaking Bishop?
A row has broken out among parish priests in the Roman Catholic diocese of Argyll
and the Isles over whether the successor to the disgraced bishop, Roderick Wright,
should be required to speak Gaelic.
The diocese, which has been without a bishop for more than two years since Mr
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Exercises
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Wright resigned and fled to England with a married woman, is split down language
lines. 
Many of the island priests believe the new bishop must be able to speak the
language of the Gaels, but other parish priests are fundamentally opposed to making
fluency in the language a requirement for the post.
Monsignor Roderick Macdonald of Glencoe is one of those who has spoken out
against the move. He said yesterday: ‘Gaelic just does not come into it at all.
‘I know what some of the island priests are saying, but they are always saying that.
Whenever Cardinal Winning says something, they suggest that it would have been
better if he had said it in Gaelic.
‘Of course all the islanders speak English, some of them don’t speak Gaelic.’
However, not everyone in the diocese is in agreement.
Father Joe Toal of Benbecula was adamant that the new bishop will speak Gaelic.
He said: ‘It was inappropriate for Right Rev Mgr Macdonald to express such an
opinion as strongly as he did. It was a real kick in the teeth for island Catholics,
people who pray and think in Gaelic every day of their lives.’
The campaign for a Gaelic-speaking bishop is connected to the renaissance of
Gaelic in other areas.
Fr Toal said that the Church must not be left behind. He said: ‘The way I and
many others see it, Gaelic is becoming more and more important in the public life
of Scotland. The language has a special place in the media, education and the arts.
The Church needs a strong voice in the Gaelic world, someone who will give leader -
ship and is capable of putting the Church’s message across convincingly.’
[…]
The press officer for the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland, Father Tom
Connelly, said he believed a ‘healing’ message was more important than a ‘Gaelic’
one.
A former editor of the Scottish Catholic Observer, Hugh Farmer, said he thought
the row was a local difficulty. He said: ‘The best bishop of Argyll and the Isles there
ever was spoke not a word of Gaelic and he did more for the Gaelic traditions and
culture before him or since. Bishop Stephen McGill is retired now, but he was there
between 1960 and 1968.’
He added: ‘It is not a Gaelic-speaking bishop they need, it’s a good holy pastor:
Gaelic is not an issue.’
(Extract from A. O’Henley and A. Gray, ‘Priests split on need for new bishop with
Gaelic’, 
The Scotsman, 
9 March 1999, p. 4.)