Dimensions
241 x 163 x 42mm
The life of the spiritual pugilist and eminent Scottish Cardinal Thomas Winning, who died in 2001.
Cardinal Winning was an outspoken and unashamed champion of traditional Catholic values who became a constant thorn in the government's side. The son of an unemployed miner in Lanarkshire, he grew up in the 1930s, a time of great hostility to Roman Catholics; he himself was bullied and forced to renounce his faith in the face of Protestant hostility.
As an adult he fought hard against the repression of Catholics and the "loose morals" of an increasingly secular society. Strongly anti-abortion and anti-homosexuality, and a bit of a misogynist, he strongly defended the poor and the unemployed when he was Archbishop of Glasgow. Despite being beset by ill health and insecurity, he became (in 1994) only the third Scottish Cardinal of the 20th century.
His sharp tongue often landed him in hot water; he compared abortion to the practices of the Nazis and accused Prince Charles of "woolly theology" when Charles criticised the Vatican's stance on divorce. In addition, he was something of a closet nationalist who was privately keen to see an independent Scotland.
Cardinal Winning was a notorious cleric and outspoken and unashamed champion of traditional Catholic values, who became a constant thorn in the government's side. This is his biography.
