Pope rails against UK equality bill
Pope takes unprecedented move of condemning UK government's equality bill as 'violation of natural law'
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Tuesday, 02, Feb 2010 10:15
By Matthew Champion.
The Pope has taken the unprecedented move of condemning an impending piece of UK legislation, dubbing the government's equality bill as a 'violation of natural law'.
Pope Benedict XVI told Catholic bishops from England and Wales during their pilgrimage to Rome that the legislation would impose "unjust limitations" on religious communities.
Equality minister Harriet Harman says her bill, which consolidates different parts of Britain's equality legislation, will make Britain a fairer place.
But the Pope has dramatically voiced fears it will end the Catholic Church's right to prevent gay people from becoming bishops.
"Your country is well known for its firm commitment to equality of opportunity for all members of society," he said in the Vatican yesterday.
"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.
"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."
Pope Benedict also announced he will travel to the UK later this year, probably September, in the first papal visit since John Paul II visited in 1982.
Last night the National Secular Society said it would protest the pontiff's trip.
"The taxpayer in this country is going to be faced with a bill of some £20 million for the visit of the Pope," the group's president Terry Sanderson said.
"A visit in which he has already indicated he will attack equal rights and promote discrimination."