Scotland: church goes on attack

The Catholic Church has lashed out at moves to introduce marriage equality in Scotland.

The country’s most senior clergyman, Cardinal Keith O’Brien, has claimed that allowing same-sex marriage would “shame Scotland in the eyes of the world” and would be a “grotesque subversion of a universally accepted human right”.

The Catholic Bishop of Paisley, Philip Tartaglia, also weighed in, saying that Scottish Catholics should not support a government that would back same-sex marriage.

“Such a government does not deserve the trust which the nation, and including many in the Catholic community, has shown in it,” Tartaglia said.

“A government which favours and allows for same-sex marriage does wrong … It fails in its duty to society. It undermines the common good. It commits an act of cultural vandalism.

“Marriage is an institution which does not owe its existence or rationale to governments or legislatures … Governments do not have the authority to say what marriage is or to change its nature or to decree that people of the same sex can marry.”

According to polling, 57 percent of Scottish Catholics support marriage equality while only 25 percent oppose it.

Scotland has begun a consultation process that should see full marriage rights granted to same-sex couples before 2014.