Pope's Appearance Quashes Labour's Equality Law

It's amazing because now everyone is talking about Catholic Dogma and the Church's teaching on the Natural Law. Some might not like how the Holy Father intruded these concepts into the daily discussions of so many people in the wake of his UK visit, but there they are for all to complain about, but not a few, we think, particularly England's Clergy will be energized in a very decisive way to teach and spread the Catholic Faith.

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Telegraph] Ministers had tried to include a new definition of a priest in the flagship anti-discrimination law, but church leaders complained that it was far too narrow.

They said it would mean religious organisations could no longer opt out of equality rules, and so would face prosecution unless they went against their beliefs by employing homosexuals. Roman Catholics feared they would be forced to admit women to the priesthood for the first time.

In an unprecedented intervention in British politics, on Monday the Pope declared that Britain’s equality laws are imposing “unjust limitations on the freedom of religious communities to act in accordance with their beliefs”.

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New Statesman...Pope Condemns Equality Law.

Times... Pope Attacks Labour.

Scots cardinal defiant after Pope criticises equality law ahead of visit

THE leader of Scotland's Catholics has insisted the Church's voice would "continue to be heard" despite new legislation which could end its ban on allowing gays taking up senior positions.

Cardinal Keith O'Brien's comments came after Pope Benedict XVI hit out at proposals in the UK's forthcoming Equality Bill, claiming the legislation "violates natural law" and was a threat to religious freedom.

The cardinal, who is leading a week long visit by Scotland's Catholic bishops on their traditional Ad Limina pilgrimage to Rome, spoke out yesterday in the official Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano.

The pontiff yesterday announced plans to visit Scotland later this year, but in an unprecedented attack on Gordon Brown's human rights policies, the Pope urged Catholic bishops to fight back with "missionary zeal".

Yesterday the Pope faced a backlash from gay and human rights campaigners with Labour MSP Stephen Hughes challenging him to start applying equality rules "on his own doorstep".

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Holy Father Says Homosexuality a Violation of the Natural Law

Thanks to Louis Welcome for this notification. Isn't there some putative blue law on the books in England where the Pope can be arrested for offending homosexuals like this? We know that many homosexuals want people who teach the contra-natural nature of their behaviors to be locked in jail. But this story is interesting because of its title, and it's interesting to us because there are quite a few churchmen in the United States who deny the actuality (if that's the word) of the natural law. We think that there are a lot of people, particularly at places like St. John's Abbey, who would like for there not to be a natural law. They at least have a vested interest in there not being one, because it means that there are, as their mantra goes, "no moral absolutes" and they can be creative about morality. What they mean is that they want to invent a justification for their moral infirmities to the point of creating a society which praises their activities, or at least turns a blind eye...

Guardian

The Pope yesterday made an unprecedented attack on Britain's equality legislation, claiming Harriet Harman's attempts to bring in new laws enforced sinful behaviour.

Benedict XVl condemned Labour's Equality Bill in extraordinary terms as an assault on the 'natural law' of Christianity - in other words a sin.
His remarks came in a speech at the Vatican moments after he confirmed he will visit the UK in September.

We like this article for other reasons as well in that it affirms Benedict's vision of encouraging the Bishops of Wales and England to adhere to Catholic teaching, particularly in regard to the natural law, which Guardian, unfortunately defines this way:

By natural law, the Pope meant the Christian and Biblical teaching on which Roman Catholic beliefs are based, including the Ten Commandments. Rejection of the natural law is sinful in Catholic theology.

Actually, as Catholic Encylcopedia, quoting St. Thomas, has it, natural law is defined thusly:

...the natural law is "nothing else than the rational creature's participation in the eternal law" (I-II.94). The eternal law is God's wisdom, inasmuch as it is the directive norm of all movement and action. When God willed to give existence to creatures,He willed to ordain and direct them to an end. In the case of inanimate things, this Divine direction is provided for in the nature which God has given to each; in them determinism reigns. Like all the rest of creation, man is destined by God to an end, and receives from Him a direction towards this end. This ordination is of a character in harmony with his free intelligent nature. In virtue of his intelligence and free will, man is master of his conduct. Unlike the things of the mere material world he can vary his action, act, or abstain from action, as he pleases. Yet he is not a lawless being in an ordered universe. In the very constitution of his nature, he too has a law laid down for him, reflecting that ordination and direction of all things, which is the eternal law. The rule, then, which God has prescribed for our conduct, is found in our nature itself. Those actions which conform with its tendencies, lead to our destined end, and are thereby constituted right and morally good; those at variance with our nature are wrong and immoral.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1247706/Pope-condemns-Harriet-Harman-equality-drive-violation-natural-law.html#ixzz0eO0C1aiI