Magazine |
Growing anger over Pope’s reaction to Equalities Bill

The Equality Bill has come under fire from the Pope who has claimed it enforces sinful behaviour and will force the Church to hire gay people or transsexuals.

In a letter addressed to the Catholic Bishops of England and Wales the Pope said: it served 'to impose unjust limitations on the freedom of religious communities to act in accordance with their beliefs'.

But human rights campaigners have attacked the Pope over his decision to publicly criticise the Bill.

Paul Blanchard, chair of the Labour Humanists, told Payroll World: ‘It does not come as a shock, that he opposes the Equality Bill. Religious leaders should be trying to eradicate inequality in the workplace, not perpetuate it through homophobia’.

He added: ‘The Catholic Church should not be above the law, and neither should any other religion. It should not have special treatment in society and have what it sees as the “right” to hold intolerant views.’

Even The Tablet, a Catholic weekly magazine, urged the Catholic Church to reconsider its view. In its editorial last month it said: ‘It must accept them [homosexuals], respect them, love them and indeed, with a minimum of caveats, employ them. If the Church had been seen to be doing that already, before this week’s events, the furore would never have happened.’

But other areas of the Catholic Church were quick to defend the Pontiff. The head of Britain’s Catholics, the Archbishop of Westminster Vincent Nichols, said the Pope was merely outlining how equality legislation encroaches upon religious freedoms. ‘I think his words will find an echo in many in our country who are uneasy that perhaps one of the unintended consequences of recent legislation is to drive religious belief and practice into the sphere of the private only,’ he said.

Liberal Democrat MP Evan Harris, who sits on the Joint Committee on Human Rights, told the BBC that all Britons - including Catholics and gay people - were protected by UK equality laws. ‘The Equality Bill …protects the general workforce from prejudiced employers’, he said.

17/02/10