Still sore from watching his anti-Equality Act campaign fall flat, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor is back on the offensive. Last night at Westminster Cathedral, he delivered his most critical speech to date.He accused Labour of "legislating for intolerance" in his attack and questioned "whether the threads holding together democracy have begun to unravel".
The Cardinal has already been accused of blackmail after he threatened to close down Catholic adoption agencies if forced to comply with the Sexual Orientation Regulations which will give gay couples the right to adopt.
He said: "I'm not blackmailing anybody. I am just saying to the government the possible consequences of carrying through these particular regulations."
Critics were at a loss to see how denying vulnerable children a home could be morally superior to placing them with a loving gay couple.
Last night's speech took swipes at the Government and stoked fears that religion is being sidelined to please the gay community.
In many ways, last night's speech confirmed his reputation as the Daily Mail dressed in a cassock.
He declared: "For my own part, I have no difficulty in being a proud British Catholic citizen. But now it seems to me we are being asked to accept a different version of our democracy, one in which diversity and equality are held to be at odds with religion. We Catholics - and here I am sure I speak too for other Christians and all people of faith - do not demand special privileges, but we do demand our rights."
The new regulations come in to force next month and while Catholic agencies have been given extra time to get their house in order, they’re determined to assert strength and authority.
Catholic adoption agencies receive approximately £10m per annum in tax payers’ money, a point which has proved quite difficulty to bury beneath their moral indignation.
Gay rights campaigners have been quick to point out that if the Church is enjoying the riches of the public purse, then they should serve all the public- gay people pay taxes too.
Last night, the Cardinal hinted that the solution to this inescapable and thorny truth may be to sling the tax benefits and rely instead on charitable donations.
The Cardinal said: "I wonder how far we can still claim as British the assumption that if a religious organisation serves the public interest according to its own rights, it has a legitimate claim on public resources. I begin to wonder whether Britain will continue to be a place which protects and welcomes the works of people shaped and inspired by the church."
The Cardinal said he feared intolerance of Christianity "so when Christians stand by their beliefs, they are intolerant dogmatists. When they sin, they are hypocrites. When they take the side of the poor, they are soft-headed liberals. When they seek to defend the family, they are Rightwing reactionaries."
He added: "What looks like liberality is in reality a radical exclusion of religion from the public sphere."
The Cardinal may find that those words are indeed true. If a liberal society finds its human rights principles and values of equality are being ignored by religion, then by its very nature, the Church is choosing to exclude itself from the public sphere.
By the same token, there's a growing number of people who feel that if the Church chooses to espouse views which fuel anti-gay hate crimes, then it should take responsibility for inspiring such behaviour.
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