London, England - The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Birmingham, the Most Rev Vincent Nichols, has warned the Government of a serious backlash if it attempts to force through a raft of new homosexual rights laws.
Archbishop Nichols said that the proposed regulations, designed to ensure equal treatment for gays, could mean the end of the Church’s co-operation with the Government in providing a range of welfare services.
Church officials also believe that the its seven adoption agencies could be closed if they were required to place children with gay couples in defiance of Vatican guidelines.
Speaking in St Chad’s cathedral in Birmingham, the Archbishop that the Government “must realise is that it is not possible to seek cooperation with us while at the same time trying to impose upon us conditions which contradict our moral values.”
He added that it was “simply unacceptable” to suggest that the “resources of the faith communities, whether in schools, adoption agencies, welfare programmes, halls and shelters, can work in cooperation with public authorities only if the faith communities accept not simply a legal framework but also the moral standards at present being touted by Government.”
The Archbishop, who forced the Government into a humiliating climbdown over faith schools early this month, said the process of secular democracy in Britain was not morally neutral but was “engaged in an intense and at times aggressive reshaping of our moral framework”.
He continued: “Take the notion of the family and the moral equivalence being forced upon us between marriage of a man and woman, on the one hand, and on the other, a legally recognised partnership of two people of the same sex.”
He said that politicians were not elected to be “our moral tutors” and should not be forcing their own ideas of morality on the British public.
The Sexual Orientation (Provision of Goods and Services) Regulations, which will be introduced into Parliament in April, aims to protect gays and lesbians from being denied “goods, facilities and services” on the basis of their sexual preference.
The Church of England and the Catholic Church have demanded exemptions after it became apparent that they might be sued if clergy refused to bless same-sex unions.
The Catholic Church fears for the future of its adoption and fostering agencies because Pope Benedict XVI regards gay adoption as “gravely immoral”, and agencies have closed in the United States after the introduction of similar laws there.
The English and Welsh bishops told the Government earlier this year that without an exemption their seven agencies, which last year placed 227 children with new families, would shut, creating “a huge gap in service provision for many of the most vulnerable children”.
The proposed regulations could also force Christian marriage preparation and guidance agencies to cater for same sex couples and would not allow parishes, retreat houses, conference centres and hostels to refuse bookings from gay and lesbians.
Faith schools could be compelled to teach that homosexuality was the moral equivalent of heterosexual marriage.
The regulations were due to be voted on in Parliament last month but were delayed by Ruth Kelly, the Communities and Local Government Secretary, after an unexpectedly huge response to a consultation exercise.
The current indications are, however, that the regulations are more likely to be strengthened than watered down.
Ann Widdecombe, the former Conservative minister, said that the proposals spelled the “end of freedom of conscience in our country”.
“They create a hierarchy of rights and whenever a homosexual right comes up against any other right the homosexual right prevails,” she said, adding that the Government “seems to have no clue that practising a religion means more than going to church”.
She added: “We need a massive Christian fightback like we saw over with the British Airways or these regulations will go through. We need everybody to say this is wrong.”