Pope Benedict XVI spoke of the UK Government’s ‘commitment to equality of opportunity’ and called upon Catholic Bishops from England and Wales to defend the faith and the Church’s moral teaching in the face of controversial equality legislation passing through Parliament.
He said that instead of making society more equal, the Government’s new rules limit religious freedom and attempt to stop worshippers remaining true to their beliefs.
Pope Benedict’s intervention in the British ‘equality agenda’ debate comes after leaders of Churches and Christian groups clashed with the Government over its Equality Bill, which will make churches admit homosexuals to the priesthood or face prosecution for discriminating against them.
Addressing 35 bishops at the end of their ad limina visit to Rome on 1 February 2010, he has confirmed he will this year make the first papal visit to the UK since John Paul II’s of 1982.
‘Your country is well known for its firm commitment to equality of opportunity for all members of society. Yet as you have rightly pointed out, the effect of some of the legislation designed to achieve this goal has been to impose unjust limitations on the freedom of religious communities to act in accordance with their beliefs,’ Pope Benedict said.
‘In some respects it actually violates the natural law upon which the equality of all human beings is grounded and by which it is guaranteed.
‘Fidelity to the Gospel in no way restricts the freedom of others – on the contrary, it serves their freedom by offering them the truth. Continue to insist upon your right to participate in national debate through respectful dialogue with other elements in society.
‘In doing so, you are not only maintaining long-standing British traditions of freedom of expression and honest exchange of opinion, but you are actually giving voice to the convictions of many people who lack the means to express them: when so many of the population claim to be Christian, how could anyone dispute the Gospel’s right to be heard?,’ he added.
At the end of last month, the Government suffered defeat over its Equality Bill in the House of Lords. Its amendment was defeated by 195 votes to 174 and the law limiting churches’ freedom has not been narrowed any further.
As a result of the Government’s previous ‘equality’ legislation, many Catholic adoption agencies have either closed down or cut their links with the Church after they were refused exemptions from anti-discrimination rules that forced them to consider homosexual couples as potential parents.
At a press conference in Rome, the Most Rev Peter Smith, Archbishop of Cardiff, said:
‘The Church of course upholds absolutely the equal dignity of every person, irrespective of their faith, age and ability.
‘But I think there is a misunderstanding, because sometimes in government legislation equality seems to be that we are all absolutely equal, which we are not. We are equal in dignity, beyond that each one of us is unique.’
The National Secular Society said it was planning a ‘large-scale’ campaign of protest that would bring together homosexual groups, feminist groups, pro-abortion family planning groups, and other pro-choice organisations against the visit of Pope Benedict.