The Catholic Church will urge its congregation to oppose
same-sex marriage in a letter from the Archbishop of Westminster,
which will be read out at every mass in the country, this
Sunday.
It is the latest step in a fight against David Cameron's plans
to legalise same-sex marriage and comes just days after Cardinal
Keith O'Brien's explosive comments.
The letter, signed by Archbishop Vincent Nichols (pictured) and
his colleague the Archbishop of Southwark, Peter Smith, will be
read aloud at 2,500 churches across England and Scotland.
It urges Catholics to oppose government plans to allow gay men
and women to marry in secular ceremonies.
The Archbishops wrote: "Changing the legal definition of
marriage would be a profoundly radical step. Its consequences
should be taken seriously."
Terry Sanderson, head of the National Secular Society, told The
Independent: "What the Government is actually proposing is entirely
secular in nature, they are only proposing changes to civil
marriage. For all their double talk about it being about religious
freedom, homophobia does lie at the heart of it.
"If you see the sort of language the Pope uses about gay people
it's not just a kind of 'we stick by our biblical morals', it's a
kind of 'we are repulsed by this'."
Photo from Wikipedia.
