Cardinal Keith O'Brien Lambasts Same-Sex Government Marriage Proposals

Deo gratias. Please, Archbishop Vincent Nichols, if Your Grace needs some oil for his lamp, get the oil from Cardinal Keith O'Brien, while there is time...

Courtesy of The Telegraph

Cardinal Keith O’Brien, the leader of the Catholic Church in Scotland, says the proposals to allow same-sex unions are “madness” and a “grotesque subversion of a universally accepted human right”.

The cardinal’s intervention, in an article for The Sunday Telegraph, is the strongest criticism yet from any church figure of the plans, which are due to be unveiled this month by Lynne Featherstone, the equalities minister.

He accuses ministers of trying to “redefine reality” and change long-standing laws and traditions “at the behest of a small minority of activists”.

Cardinal O’Brien, the only British Catholic to be part of the College of Cardinals, the body which elects popes, accuses ministers of showing “intolerance” and coming up with plans that would “shame the United Kingdom in the eyes of the world”.

He writes: “Since all the legal rights of marriage are already available to homosexual couples, it is clear that this proposal is not about rights, but rather is an attempt to redefine marriage for the whole of society at the behest of a small minority of activists.

“Same-sex marriage would eliminate entirely in law the basic idea of a mother and a father for every child. It would create a society which deliberately chooses to deprive a child of either a mother or a father.”

Ministers have assured church groups they will not be forced to accept same-sex marriages – a pledge which does not impress the cardinal. He writes: “Imagine for a moment that the Government had decided to legalise slavery but assured us that 'No one will be forced to keep a slave.’

“Would such worthless assurances calm our fury? Would they justify dismantling a fundamental human right?” 

For full article, click here.

Why does there seem to be such a public disparity between the 'Braveheart' rallying cries from Scottish Bishops and the eerie sound of silence from the Bishops Conference of England and Wales? For the full, fantastic article written by Cardinal Keith O'Brien for The Sunday Telegraph, click here.

'We cannot afford to indulge this madness'. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Your Eminence. That, that, my Lords, is how you grab a headline (front page no less!) and proclaim the Truth. May all your lamps my Lords, and indeed all our lamps, be lit, when the Bridegroom comes.