Archbishop of Westminster’s Christmas message: Same-sex marriage plan is an Orwellian shambles
The leader of the Roman Catholic church in England and Wales has attacked the Government’s plans for marriage equality as an undemocratic shambles.
The archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Nichols spoke to the BBC ahead of his Christmas Day service. Last night during his Christmas Eve mass service, he attacked the Government legislating for equality.
He told the BBC: “There was no announcement in any party manifesto, no green paper, no statement in the Queen’s speech.
“And yet here we are on the verge of primary legislation. From a democratic point of view, it’s a shambles.
“George Orwell would be proud of that manoeuvre. I think the process is shambolic.”
The archbishop ignored the fact that the governing Conservative Party included a commitment to begin the process that has lead to the plans for equal marriage.
The archbishop also claimed that during a “period of listening”, in other words, the Government’s official consultation period, those who responded were “7-1 against same-sex marriage”.
This statement isn’t true either, or the archbishop needs to attend a maths revision class. The Government says that 53 per cent of those who responded to the consultation said they supported making same-sex marriage equal.
Speaking to this congregation at Westminster Cathedral last night, he said: “Sometimes sexual expression can be without the public bond of the faithfulness of marriage and its ordering to new life.
“Even Governments mistakenly promote such patterns of sexual intimacy as objectively to be approved and even encouraged among the young.”
Later at Durham Cathedral on Christmas Day, the archbishop attacked David Cameron: “Basically the prime minister has said, ‘where there is love and commitment, then that’s all that you need for marriage’… But I think that’s very shallow thinking, and it’s a shame that these matters have not been given much, much more thought.”
Last week, the Pope said: “There is also a need to acknowledge and promote the natural structure of marriage as the union of a man and a woman in the face of attempts to make it juridically equivalent to radically different types of union.
“Such attempts actually harm and help to destabilise marriage, obscuring its specific nature and its indispensable role in society”, the Pope told worshipers.
