Church to Fight to Defend Role in Public Life

From The Telegraph (U.K.):

The Roman Catholic Church is preparing a major campaign to defend its role in public life after Tony Blair bowed to Cabinet pressure and refused to exempt Catholic adoption agencies from new gay rights laws.

Church insiders indicated yesterday that the bishops are to urge supporters to lobby MPs to stage the largest possible revolt when the proposed laws are debated in Parliament next month.

The bishops are also expected to make the Church's involvement in such areas as adoption and education key issues in future elections, to the alarm of Catholic Labour MPs.

Writing in today's Daily Telegraph, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, the head of the Church in England and Wales, gives warning that the issues "will not go away".

***
Signalling that the Church will challenge the moves, he said that it would be a "great pity" if people were driven out of public life because they were unable to follow their consciences.

The Cardinal said that the Government was effectively telling the Church that it had "no place in the public life of this country", adding that he hoped its agencies' work could continue.

***
Vatican officials are said to be deeply concerned. One Rome insider said that the Vatican regarded the refusal to grant an exemption as a "real manifestation of the dictatorship of relativism" that had been predicted by the Pope.

[More]