Scottish Catholic Observer

Two senior members of the Scottish hierarchy have added their voices this week to growing opposition to the Scottish Government’s plans to legalise same-sex ‘marriage’ as the Church backed calls for a referendum on the issue.

Archbishop Mario Conti of Glasgow and Bishop Joseph Devine of Motherwell both released powerful statements condemning what the archbishop said was an attempt to ‘reconstruct society on ideological grounds.’

“The Catholic Church, for one, will not accept it, and indeed will actively campaign against it,” Archbishop Conti said, encouraging Scotland’s Catholics to make their opposition known.

The Church also backed a call on Tuesday from former SNP leader Gordon Wilson for a national referendum on the issue of same-sex ‘marriage.’

Redefining marriage

Archbishop Conti and Bishop Devine’s statements come after Bishop Philip Tartaglia’s meeting with First Minster Alex Salmond last Friday during which the Paisley bishop reiterated ‘the Catholic Bishops’ publicly stated commitment to ‘strenuously oppose’ any moves towards ‘same-sex marriage.’

The Scottish Government is currently holding a public consultation on plans to legalise same-sex ‘marriage’ but deputy First Minster Nicola Sturgeon has already said she is minded to support the planned legislation.

‘We weaken it at our peril’

Archbishop Conti this week said that many in Scotland shared the Church’s concerns on proposals to redefine marriage.

“There are many within our own society, members of the great world religions, whose support of the family matches that which we in the Catholic Church ourselves maintain,” he said.  “Those in government need to be respectfully reminded that a mandate to govern does not include a mandate to reconstruct society on ideological grounds, nor to undermine the very institution which, from the beginning, has been universally acknowledged as of the natural order and the bedrock of society, namely marriage and the family. In terms of law, its support and defence have been on a par with the defence of life itself. We weaken it at our peril.”

Archbishop Conti also said that, while many might see the redefining of civil partnerships as ‘marriage’ as ‘a small step,’ it was of ‘serious importance and will be rightly resisted by many.’

“This cannot be seen to be in any way helpful in fulfilling the broader aim of social cohesion by which government is clearly motivated,” he said. “It will act to create larger divisions in society and could lead in the future, as we have seen in some of the legislation to date, to gross allegations of discrimination.’

Attack on ‘Christian identity’

Bishop Devine was forthright on the subject, saying that the Scottish Government had been given notice that the bishops of Scotland would ‘strenuously oppose this hostile attack on the Christian model of marriage as the state mobilises to enforce a new more aggressive position in support of same-sex marriage.’

The Motherwell bishop said he appealed to all to ‘recognise the immeasurable personal dignity and equal worth of all individuals, including those with same-sex attraction but warned ‘the historic Christian identity of Britain is under assault.’

“We now have a straight fight between faith and atheism, morality and amorality, a culture of life and a culture of death,” he said. “The institution of marriage should not be corrupted by the transient fashions of society or by malevolent forces seeking to undermine the place of religious faith in society.”

The bishop added that this attempt to ‘redefine marriage’ had nothing to do with ‘gay rights’ as ‘all the legal rights of marriage are already available to homosexual couples through civil partnership registrations.’

“This is everything to do with dismantling and rejecting 2000 years of Christianity,” he said. “The small but vociferous secular gay lobby, aided and abetted by powerful political forces, successfully and selfishly destroyed Catholic adoption agencies that placed thousands of abandoned children in loving family homes. Now, buoyed up with their success, they are intent on violating Christian marriage. And it will not stop there. We should learn well the lesson of the 1967 Abortion Act.

Referendum

Former SNP leader Mr Wilson, who is now chairman of the Christian group Solas, made the call for a referendum on redefining marriage along with Free Church of Scotland minister the Reverend David Robertson, who is the group’s director. They asked for the issue to be put to the electorate in a referendum in a written submission to the Scottish Government’s public consultation on the issue.

“The Scottish Government is out of touch with reality,” he said. “This decision should be put to a referendum of the Scottish people.”

Peter Kearney, the director of the Catholic Media Office, said that Mr Wilson’s call for a referendum was ‘very interesting’ and could be a good way to ‘take the national temperature.’

The Free Church last week urged the Scottish Government to drop its proposals on allowing same-sex couples to marry, and ‘applauded the courage’ of the Scottish Catholic Church in speaking out against redefining marriage.

Fundamental campaign

As the Church steps up its campaign opposing the same-sex ‘marriage’ proposals, Archbishop Conti is backing a national campaign calling for Scotland’s Catholics to defend marriage.

In an effort to rally support against the legalisation of same-sex ‘marriage’ the Church has sent 100,000 postcards to households all over Scotland asking people to make their opposition known during the public consultation.

Mr Kearney said the campaign was absolutely vital to the Church and the any government who legalised same-sex marriage could not expect the support of Catholics.

“In terms of an issue of importance to the Catholic Church, this is fundamental, utterly fundamental,” he said. “I can’t see how any Catholic, in good conscience, could support a party which would enact such a law. It’s impossible to imagine. It’s impossible to see how a Catholic who upholds their Faith could support anyone who would dismantle the meaning of marriage.”

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