Catholic Church's Obsessive Homophobia A Threat To Democracy

KENILWORTH, 13 MARCH 2007 — The Catholic Church’s obsessive homophobia is becoming a threat to democracy, says the Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association (GALHA).

Commenting on the appeal from the pulpit by the Archbishop of Birmingham, Vincent Nichols, to persuade his flock to oppose the sexual orientation regulations and the announcement by the Bishop of Motherwell, Joseph Devine, that he would not be voting for Labour in the May elections, GALHA’s secretary, George Broadhead, said: “The Catholic Church is becoming much more politically active throughout Europe – not only in Britain, where it is still fuming over the refusal of the Government to exempt it from the sexual orientation regulations, but also in Italy, where the Vatican is agitating very hard to scupper civil partnership legislation, and in Spain where it is still opposing the gay marriage laws as well as proposed changes to the education system that downgrade the importance of Catholic education in schools.”

Mr Broadhead said that political parties and individual politicians should resist pressure from the Catholic Church. “When the Catholic Church speaks, the Scottish Executive usually jumps, but on this occasion it is important that the Labour Party calls the bluff of these theocrats. The world has moved on and the population at large, including many Catholics, is much more liberal than the hierarchy of the Catholic Church. They don’t take any notice of church teaching on contraception, abortion and women’s rights so why should they take notice of it on homosexuality? Labour should stand firm and it will find that the Church cannot command the vote as it used to. Once they have discovered this, they will be free of the need to kowtow to the many demands of the Vatican.”

Bishop Joseph Devine is tentatively supporting the Christian People’s Alliance, a new political party that is widely regarded as having no chance of progressing whatsoever. Another fundamentalist party, the Scottish Christian Party, led by Rev George Hargreaves, is targeting the Glasgow seat of gay MSP (and GALHA vice-president) Patrick Harvie.