ABSTRACT
This chapter examines a referendum on independence from the rest of the UK meant that Scotland and the identity of the Scottish people received a good deal of attention in public, political and media discourse. It provides a starting point for the analysis of the young people's perspectives. The chapter presents number of reasons for the disparity in the fortunes of the Church of Scotland and the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland, including the role of migration in maintaining the numbers of the Roman Catholic community Polish, Italian and Sri Lankan Roman Catholics are among the young people. The chapter explores the perspectives of identifying as Roman Catholics which focus on validation of faith, comprising religious identity, beliefs, practices and values. It explains the problems of identity, with fragmentation of memory, with disconnect of the individual from collective tradition, and, in this context of instability, with the need of young people for ontological security.
