Pope Benedict has called same-sex marriage and abortion "insidious and dangerous" in a speech delivered at the Catholic shrine of Fatima, Portugal this week.

The Pope told the estimated 400,000 crowd that he supported efforts to fight abortion and promote the "indissoluble marriage between a man and woman".
He then went on to say how opposing the union between two people of the same sex "represented an essential element in the building of the civilisation of love."

The Pope also held a meeting with Portugal's Prime Minister, Jose Socrates, whose government recently passed a law allowing gay marriage.

George Broadhead, Secretary of UK gay Humanist charity the Pink Triangle Trust, said:
"These repeated attacks on gay rights, and in particular the right to marriage, amount to a paranoid obsession about what the Pope clearly perceives as an intrinsic moral evil.

"Given that the stance of all three main UK political parties is supportive of gay rights, are their leaders going to have the guts to condemn this overt hostility and will the new coalition government think twice about welcoming this ghastly bigot to the UK next September?"

Courtesy of the GScene