Gay reverend criticises Scottish Catholic Leaders

{jcomments off}Openly gay Reverend Kelvin Holdsworth has criticised leaders of the Scottish Catholic Church for their recent attacks on gay marriage.

Holdsworth is the latest person to speak out against the Catholic Church over their opposition to gay marriage. The SNP led government in Scotland is to hold a public consultation on gay marriage and is “inclined” to legalise it. The Catholic Church however is opposed to legalising gay marriage and has been very outspoken in its distain for such an equalisation of marriage rights. Various leaders of the Catholic Church in Scotland have spoken out against the proposals in a rather Un-Christian like manner with one describing gay marriage as a “grotesque subversion of a universally accept human right”.

Openly gay Reverend Kelvin Holdsworth, of the Episcopal Cathedral Church of St Mary the Virgin, has criticised the Catholic Church for its outspoken and hostile attacks on gay marriage and said such attacks have left him “embarrassed to be a Christian” and said the Church risked looking “out of touch, arrogant, conceited and rude.”

“To behave as though bishops carry some kind of block vote to Holyrood, to threaten politicians and to decry those who want access to the dignity of marriage as unnatural, to say these things seems to me to go too far. Such comments from the leaders of the Roman Catholic Church have left me feeling embarrassed as a Christian. There is a risk that all of the churches will appear to be out of touch, arrogant, conceited and rude.” – Kelvin Holdsworth as quoted by The Times

Mario Conti, Archbishop of Glasgow, has stated he will write to all of Scotland’s parishes urging them to oppose the proposals. Conti said that such a move to legalise gay marriage would lead to “gross discrimination” against Christians and that the SNP government does not have a mandate to “reconstruct society on ideological grounds” and that “The Catholic Church, for one, will not accept it, and indeed will actively campaign against it.” Meanwhile Phillip Tartaglia, Bishop of Paisley, said a government that ‘favours and allows’ same-sex marriage ‘fails in its duty to society’ and ‘undermines the common good’. Tartaglia described gay marriage as a “act of cultural vandalism”. The Catholic Church in Scotland has threatened the government over legalising gay marriage claiming it would lose the support of 800,000 voters. A recent poll in Scotland placed public support for gay marriage at 61% – a very clear majority.

Over the weekend Willie Rennie, leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats, spoke out against the Catholic Church. He criticised the organisations attempts to creating a “block opposition” to gay marriage stating such a move was an “affront to liberal democracy”. Rennie also stated many Catholics had told him they do not share the anti-gay beliefs of the Churches leaders. Openly gay actor John Barrowman, who was born in Scotland, has also criticised the Church for its stance.

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