British government retreats after Pope's critique of Equality Bill
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Pope Benedict XVI

London, England, Feb 3, 2010 / 06:16 pm (CNA).- After criticism from national religious leaders and Pope Benedict XVI, The British Government has retreated from plans to implement an Equality Bill many saw as oppressive of religious freedom.

The rules of the failed anti-discrimination proposal could have barred groups from requiring Christian sexual ethics from youth leaders. Some warned it could have also made the male-only priesthood of the Catholic Church illegal.

On Monday Pope Benedict said the proposed laws imposed “unjust limitations on the freedom of religious communities to act in accordance with their beliefs.”

A source at 10 Downing Street, Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s residence, told The Telegraph, “We are clear that these parts of the Equality Bill should not go forward. The Pope's intervention has been noted.”

Many Catholic Labour Ministers of Parliament are reportedly upset that the new bill has provoked such strong reaction from Rome.

Naomi Phillips, head of Public Affairs at the British Humanist Association, characterized the pope’s remarks as an attack on “modern, liberal values” and said they further motivated her group’s opposition to the Pope’s state visit to the United Kingdom.

Archbishop of Westminster Vincent Nichols told BBC Radio 4 that the Pope was “certainly not” getting involved in party politics but was trying to give his “reasoned voice” a hearing in the public debate.

The archbishop thought Pope Benedict’s words will find an echo among many in Britain who are “uneasy” that an unintended consequence of recent legislation would “drive religious belief and practice into the sphere of the private only.”

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Subscriber comments:
Published by: Romira
Hamilton, Canada 02/08/2010 01:02 PM EST
There is a pervasive sickness sweeping across Western nations that will spell the death knell for any semblance of values that have been their bedrock for eons. Sickening liberalism in the extreme is nothing more than hedonism gone rampant and the "do as you wish" mentality with political correctness sucking the life blood out of any morality. It has to be destroyed root and branch, regardless of what its adherents refer to it as. It is also time for western cultures to stand for their traditions, beliefs and religions against this dastardly and poisenous attack against the very bastions of their beliefs before they are swept away in an avalanch of sickening liberalism that portends nothing but the negation of morality and holds out nothing but collective slavery to the "god" of liberalsm and hedonism.
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Published by: Anne
Florida 02/04/2010 05:04 PM EST
I was listening to Gus Lloyd on the Catholic channel- Sirius-XM, and started to realize the magnitude of destrution this law could bring, not only to the catholic faith but also any faith. If this act were to pass, it would be a nightmare. I don't want my children growing up with the government dictating how we practice our faith, and distorting every thing our faith has taught us the past 2000 years. Unbelievable! But watch out- this won"t be the end of it. They will just keep pushing, and pushing... until they think we are sleeping, and then try to ram it through. This subject needs to really brought to light so that all of us know. Keep vigilant, because this is not going to die down. It will resurface. Just watch
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Published by: David Lundie
Glasgow, UK 02/04/2010 10:29 AM EST
I'm not sure where this Equality Bill has come from. It's not like the Civil Partnerships Bill, which had huge support from the gay community, or the Disability Discrimination Bill, which was in response to known inequality. This isn't the Civil Rights Act, just some random collection of petty bureaucratic regulations thrown together by a government that knows it's on the way out. Nobody has ever told the public in specific terms what the overall purpose of the new law is. Thankfully the Holy Father has said what many people, not only Christians, have been saying about this legislation for some time.
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Published by: BS
England 02/04/2010 09:06 AM EST
Looks lets not con ourselves here. As a follower of the lord I do not believe that anyone should be proactively persecuted, this includes all sinners regardless. However, asking for tolerance and forcing me to adopt a belief that I dont share is against the natural law. What the government was doing was not asking for tolerance but rather telling us if we dont accept 'liberal' values then off to prison we go. Why is it that people in general, including the famed Humanist Associaton, just dont get what was actually involved here. This was not a case of morals or social freedoms, it was a case that a domestic government was trying to force the changes on public opinon but adopting an act of parliament. Governments are meant to follow the will of the people, not the will of the people being dictated by their government. Why does no one get this? I personally thank the pope for his intervention because our government did not want to listen to our voice. They can now back track and say, oh it was never going to harm you - but if that was the case why were they telling the church to get itself a good lawyer for when the act comes in? Its shocking how little the general public really know of these issues and what they could have lead to. God Bless you beloved Pope, we owe you a debt of thanks in my opnion!
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Published by: DLL
scituate Mass. USA 02/04/2010 03:36 AM EST
You can be assured that the devil is real when every institution that stands for a common decency is under attack. Chaos is the mark of the devil. The British and the Americans,Mexico and Spain are the leaders in a new progressive rule that is leading to total chaos,as decency and respect for tradition has become something to destroy in society,to make it an evil instead of something good. The government interferes with a Church when they try to control their doctrine. There is no separation of church and state when the government tries to change a male only priesthood of a church. What a church teaches about sexual ethics is of no concern to a government especially when the church is known to teach chastity and sex after a marriage between a man and a woman.
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Published by: Sarah
Toronto, Canada 02/04/2010 12:03 AM EST
The article writes, "Naomi Phillips, head of Public Affairs at the British Humanist Association, characterized the pope’s remarks as an attack on “modern, liberal values”...." Actually, Ms. Phillips, that goes both ways. In my not so humble opinion, this Equity Bill is an attack on moral and traditional Christian values and should rightly be defeated!
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Published by: B. Sun
USA 02/03/2010 09:29 PM EST
I echo the Holy Father's position on this. Any civil law against the natural law is null. As Christians if we do not stand up for we believe what kind of Christians are we? Jesus's teachings in the gospel can not be regarded as "conservative". Truth is not related to modern or discrimination.
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