British cardinal says government is 'legislating for intolerance'

Published: 2007-03-29

LONDON (CNS) -- A British cardinal has said that by sponsoring legislation for gay rights, the government is "legislating for intolerance." Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor of Westminster also questioned "whether the threads holding together democracy have begun to unravel. My fear is that, under the guise of legislating for what is said to be tolerance, we are legislating for intolerance," he said during a March 28 lecture in London a week after the government forced through new gay rights legislation with minimal debate in the House of Commons. "Once this begins, it is hard to see where it ends," said the cardinal. "My fear is that in an attempt to clear the public square of what are seen as unacceptable intrusions, we weaken the pillars on which that public square is erected, and we will discover that the pillars of pluralism may not survive ... that is why I have sounded this note of alarm." He said "what looks like liberality is, in reality, a radical exclusion of religion from the public sphere."

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