Scottish Cardinal slams UK government plans to redefine marriage to include same-sex couples

[muriel_volestrangler]

The head of the Catholic Church in Scotland has fiercely attacked the British government’s plans to allow gay marriage, calling the proposals “madness.”
...
Prime Minister David Cameron has openly advocated gay marriage. Later this month, the equalities minister will launch a consultation on how to change the legal definition of marriage to include same-sex couples.

O’Brien wrote in the newspaper that such plans would “shame the United Kingdom.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/scottish-cardinal-slams-uk-government-plans-to-redefine-marriage-to-include-same-sex-couples/2012/03/04/gIQAFmBJqR_story.html

It's the same old bigotry and whining from an archbishop who claims this changes what marriage is to a heterosexual couple, with an absurd claim that the UK would be 'shamed' by implementing an equality measure already done in 5 fellow EU countries and 2 Commonwealth countries, and some US states. The interesting thing is that it's a Conservative government which wants to introduce gay marriage. Most equality laws since the Second World War have been passed by, or under, Labour governments, with the Tories grudgingly accepting them.

More coverage:

Earlier this week the Home Office defended the plans after the Tory MP Peter Bone called them "completely nuts".

A Home Office spokeswoman said the government believed that "if a couple love each other" and want to commit to a life together they should "have the option of a civil marriage irrespective of their sexual orientation".

The equalities minister Lynne Featherstone is due to launch a consultation on the plans later this month.

Margot James, the first openly lesbian Conservative MP, criticised the "apocalyptic language" used by the cardinal and accused him of "scaremongering".

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/mar/04/catholic-leader-government-gay-marriage?newsfeed=true

[sabbat hunter]

1. two things

1) If you don't want gay marriage, then don't have one.
2) as long as churches, etc aren't forced to perform the ceremonies, I do not see how it is any of the Catholic church, or any other church's business who the government recognizes as being married.

[MNBrewer]

2. two things

1) The Catholic bishops think EVERYTHING is their business
2) Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!

[Fearless]

3. Madness is the Catholic church apologising to Galileo in 2000... a mere 390 years after

he dared to claim that the Earth wasn't the center of the universe.

So I'd say they'll come around to marriage equality some time after hell freezes over.