Cardinal: Same-sex marriage is just as immoral as slavery

From The Independent UK: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/cardinal-samesex-marriage-is-just-as-immoral-as-slavery-7536454.html

Leading Catholic sparks outrage with attack on 'grotesque' plans to allow gay couples to marry

Jerome Taylor
Monday 05 March 2012

Supporters of gay marriage reacted with dismay yesterday after Britain's most senior Roman Catholic clergyman said plans to allow same-sex marriages were as morally questionable as reintroducing slavery.

Cardinal Keith O'Brien, the head of Catholics in Scotland, described gay marriage as a "grotesque subversion of a universally accepted human right" and said the Government's plan to reform marriage laws was "madness".

In a stinging response to the Government's assurances that no church would be compelled to conduct gay marriages, he wrote: "No government has the moral authority to dismantle the universally understood meaning of marriage.

"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? Or would they simply amount to weasel words masking a great wrong?" The strength of the Cardinal's intervention caused outrage among gay-rights activists and supporters of same-sex marriages.

Ben Summerskill, from the gay-rights campaign group Stonewall, described the Cardinal's language as "insensitive beyond words".

Continue reading at: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/cardinal-samesex-marriage-is-just-as-immoral-as-slavery-7536454.html