Fr Ian Anthony Ross OP STL FSA (Scot) (14 June 1917 – 24 May 1993) was a Scottish born Catholic priest and member of The Order of Preachers (Dominican).
He was also a noted broadcaster, writer, community activist, educator and antiquarian who served as Rector of the University of Edinburgh (1979–1982).
[1] An autobiography, The Root of The Matter: Boyhood, Manhood & God, (Mainstream 1989), deals with his early life prior to joining the Order of Preachers.
He was the founder of The Innes Review and of the Scottish Catholic Historical Association and vice-chairman of the Parole Board for Scotland.
We understand better now, perhaps, the recurrent perversions in human behaviour and the difficulties men have in dealing justly and humanely with swiftly moving events; the difficulty of knowing what should be tolerated when the safety of the commonweal is threatened; of distinguishing between sin and crime; of remembering the fundamental rights of another person when we are outraged in our own being by his deeds."
For most of our history it has been too often a tool of political interests, in return for support of its own institutional structures and property, acquiescing in the misery and injustice which it should have made impossible".