UK Features

Pope sparks fury with attack on British equality laws (News Feature)

By Anna Tomforde Feb 2, 2010, 15:34 GMT

Pope Benedict XVI prays during the ecumenical ceremony of Vespers in the in St. Paul Outside the Walls\' Basilica in Rome, Italy, 25 January 2010. EPA/DANILO SCHIAVELLA

London - Months before he is due to set foot in Britain, Pope Benedict XVI has made sure that his historic trip in September will be accompanied by a lively debate on ecclesiastical, moral and social issues.

After his controversial move late last year to make it easier for disaffected British Anglicans to join the fold of the Roman Catholic Church, the German-born pontiff has now angered the government and human rights groups by attacking planned equality laws. Addressing a gathering of Catholic Bishops of England and Wales in Rome Monday, Pope Benedict said that planned equality legislation now before the British parliament could impose 'unjust limitations' on religious freedom and 'violate natural law.'

According to reports in Britain, the pope urged the bishops to employ 'missionary zeal' to stop the legislation from forcing the church to end its practice of rejecting job applicants on the grounds of their sexuality. 'Your country is well known for its commitment to equality and opportunity for all members of society,' the pope told the bishops.

'Yet ... 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,' he said.

His remarks have been seen as criticism of the Equality Bill, which church leaders have warned could expose them to legal challenges if they refuse to employ sexually-active gay people and transsexuals.

The proposed law would ban all forms of discrimination in recruitment and would apply to all employers, including the church. It could bring an end to the church practice of banning applicants from employment in 'non-religious jobs' on the grounds of their sexual orientation.

Benedict's statements could also have an impact on an ongoing controversy over whether Catholic adoption agencies should be forced to consider gay couples as potential adoptive parents.

The pontiff's blunt criticism of British politics poses something of a dilemma for Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

Brown's spokesman, while welcoming the forthcoming visit, refrained from a direct comment of the papal criticism, saying only that the government had set out its position on equal opportunities 'very clearly.'

Women and Equality minister Harriet Harman explained that the non- discrimination law would put religious organizations on the same level as other employers when it came to to recruitment for 'non- religious jobs' in the church.

But Harman stressed that the government had 'never insisted' that the new legislation should apply to 'religious jobs such as being vicar, a bishop an imam or a rabbi.'

'It is difficult to think of anything which could more effectively enrage and energize the opponents of the papal visit,' the Guardian newspaper said Tuesday.

'The pope's remarks are clearly prompted in part by a sense that secularist forces are mounting an aggressive campaign that the Catholic church must resist,' it said. Veteran gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell said the pope's criticism was a 'coded attack on the legal rights granted to women and gay people.'

The 'ill-informed' pope appeared to be 'defending discrimination by religious institutions and demanding that they should be above the law,' said Tatchell.

The National Secular Society (NSS) said it would mount a protest campaign against the pope's visit. The campaign would consist of gay groups, victims of clerical abuse, feminists, family planning organizations and pro-abortion groups among others.

But Archbishop Vincent Nicols, the head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, said the pope's words would resonate with many people who felt 'uneasy' about the legislation.

The pope's criticism comes after a key move by the Vatican in October to create a new structure to allow Anglican church congregations to effect wholesale transfers into the Catholic church.

The move is aimed at a growing number of Anglican Church members disaffected with that church's more liberal approach to controversial issues such as the ordination of women and homosexuals as priests and bishops.

Under the new structure, even married former Anglican bishops would be able to become Catholic priests, but not bishops.

The Vatican said the new canonical structure was in response to appeals from Anglicans 'wishing to see a full mending of the split between Catholicism and Anglicanism.'

The split dates back to the 16th century when Henry VIII broke with Rome to establish the Church of England, to which some 25 million Britons belong, while the Roman Catholic flock is around 4.2 million strong.