Prickly prelate who will brook no dissent

Cardinal Winning, the scourge of Tony Blair, is used to controversy, writes Paul Vallely

Few Catholics in Scotland are surprised at the vehemence of Cardinal Thomas Winning's attack on Tony Blair over New Labour's attitude to abortion. He is not known for his coyness. This was after all the man who trenchantly attacked the Tories under Margaret Thatcher and once rounded on the Prince of Wales for "woolly theology".Born 71 years ago of Lanarkshire working- class stock, Thomas Winning never lost the salty characteristics of his upbringing nor the laager mentality of a childhood in a nation where anti-Catholicism was entrenched more deeply south of the border.

It developed in him a strong sense of justice and a social conscience well to the left of centre. Those who know him say that had he not been a priest, he would probably even have become an MP of the Old Labour variety - "a kind of hard-left Jimmy Knapp, but with a career sprinkled with gaffes".

There are those who would say his church career is not dissimilar. But there was another formative influence there. He went from school to a junior and then a senior seminary, trained in Rome and after ordination and taking up parochial responsibilities returned to Rome as spiritual director of the Scots College seminary there.

It was before the liberalising Second Vatican Council, when the Church turned outwards to embrace the insights and the challenges of the secular world. Though Cardinal Winning encompassed its theological and pastoral approach he was never able to shake off the hierarchical and authoritarian tradition which the reformers tried to renounce. Among his Roman posts he has been a member of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican's fierce suppressor of dissent and watchdog of doctrinal orthodoxy.

Priests and laity in the Cardinal's archdiocese in Glasgow speak of him as a hard, even harsh, disciplinarian who is unused to contradiction. That is why his intervention in the political debate this week characteristically took the form of a personal reproof of Mr Blair.

"He suffers from the isolation of authority," said one Scots Catholic insider. "He is surrounded by priests who tell him what he wants to hear and is out of touch with the changes which have taken place in society. He is used to telling people what to do - and having them do it."

Polls today indicate that most Scottish Catholics practise contraception (of which Cardinal Winning is an unyielding opponent), most would favour married priests, many are happy to consider women priests, and a sizeable minority accept abortion in exceptional circumstances. "The world has changed, yet he thinks he can still bash people into submission with a crozier," said one of the Cardinal's former subordinates.

It is an attitude miles from that of his colleagues south of the border. There, faced with alaity which weighs up church rulings on their intrinsic evidence, bishops tend to advise and influence rather than to command. The difference can cause tension. Relations were strained after the spectacular defection of Bishop Roddy Wright when Cardinal Winning did not inform Cardinal Hume of the fact that Bishop Wright's first mistress, Joanna Whibley, was living on his patch and about to go public.

Cardinal Winning has weathered complaints to Rome from local Catholics about his handling of archdiocesan finances. And he will now ignore the fact that many Catholics feel he has gone too far to suggest Mr Blair's Christianity is a sham because he is not prepared to alter Labour policy on abortion.

Some Glasgow diocese insiders suggest the intervention was unplanned. "He recorded the remarks for the BBC weeks ago, before the row over the English bishops' `How to Vote' document. It's more typical of him for it to be a cock-up rather than a deliberate intent. He's not a sophisticated political operator." Such sloppy use of language is one reason why he could never be, contrary to some wilder suggestions at the weekend, a contender to be the next Pope.