Scottish Catholic Church brands gay marriage 'harmful'

Scottish Catholic leaders claim that gay marriage will be ‘harmful’ to society.

The Catholic Churches opposition to the possible legalisation of gay marriage in Scotland has been very, very vocal so far. The Church has claimed the SNP led administration would lose the confidence of 800,000 voters if it legalised gay marriage in the country and later claimed it would lose the “trust” of voters – among other attacks on homosexuality and marriage equality. Now the Church has claimed that the legalisation of gay marriage in Scotland would be “harmful” to society.

The Church branded marriage equality as hurtful as Phillip Tartaglia, Bishop of Paisley, held talks with the government’s health secretary Nicola Sturgeon. John Deighan, the Catholic Churches parliamentary officer, told the Scotman “Bishop Tartaglia was forthright in his assertion that proposals to legislate for same sex marriage would be harmful to society and to the government.”

After the meeting Ms Sturgeon said ‘While ministers tend towards the initial view that same-sex marriage should be introduced, faith groups and their celebrants should not be obliged to solemnise same-sex marriage. We also gave an assurance that all views will be listened to. I therefore welcome today’s meeting with the Catholic Church which gave me an opportunity to hear the Church’s views and concerns about the consultation, while also enabling me to repeat such assurances.”

Quite how gay marriage would be harmful to society, and what evidence there is to support that, hasn’t been made clear by the Church. One leader of the Catholic Church in Scotland branded gay marriage as a ‘grotesque subversion of a universally accepted human right’ Opinion polls in Scotland have placed public support for gay marriage at 61%.