Celestial Independence

This portrait, which judging from the mosaic seems to be from St Paul's Outside The Walls in Rome, is of Pope Celestine the Third. A Roman insider (he was an Orsini) he proved to be a Pope whose outlook stretched far beyond the Lateran. In a precursor to the awful events of the reign of Henry the Eighth in England he took a particularly hard line on Alfonso the Ninth of Leon as his marriage to Teresa of Portugal was a little too much in the family( I forget the relationship).
His relationship to Scotland? He confirmed an earlier Bull confirming that the diocese of Glasgow was a "Special Daughter of the Church", France was the original "daughter". However the confirmation was extended to the whole Church in Scotland and was a definitive declaration that Scotland was a nation in its own right, the predator being the English Province of York. This has never altered and even today the Catholic Hierarchy are totally separate from that of England and Wales.
The reason for this ramble is that there are reports of yet another Christian Democratic Party being launched in Scotland with the backing of the composer James McMillan. Perhaps it is too arcane to emphasis the continuity of the past but surely its rather tired and backward looking attitude to independence needs some context. The party has (some) laudable aims but the attack on what is sees as the narrowness of "nationalism" is all too dreary. Our upcoming choice is between too nationalisms- Scottish and British. It is odd that the latter is simply not seen as what it is.
A progressive society will be enhanced by independence, the two are linked. It will not be prefect but a more socially just, nuclear free, Scotland should appeal, surely, to those who profess to be Christians. Although I would hesitate that old Celestine would be against nuclear weapons- I sure the Moors would have blasted to Hell/Paradise had he had them!