The Bishop of
Paisley, Philip Tartaglia (pictured), responding to a proposal of the Scottish Government
to change the definition of marriage.

Bishop Tartaglia
warned that “such a government does not deserve the trust which the nation – and
including many in the Catholic community – has shown in
it.”

In a written
submission to the Scottish Government he said: “Marriage has always existed in
order to bring men and women together so that the children born of those unions
will have a mother and a father.”

He said: ““For that
reason, same-sex unions cannot fulfill the
nature and purpose of marriage. Marriage, therefore, should not be treated as an
equality issue.

“A government which
favours and allows for same sex ‘marriage’ does wrong. It fails in its duty to
society.”

The leader of the
Catholic Church in Scotland, Cardinal Keith O’Brien also warned the Government
that their move would have serious repercussions for Scottish schools and
society.

Writing in the
Scottish edition of the Mail on Sunday, he
branded the proposal as a “grotesque subversion of a universally accepted
human right”, and warned that it would deprive some
children of the opportunity to have a mother and
father.

He added: “There is
no question, that normalising gay marriage means normalising homosexual
behaviour for public school children.

“In November 2003
after a court decision in Massachusetts to legalise gay marriage, school
libraries were required to stock same-sex literature; primary school children
were given homosexual fairy stories such as King & King; some high school
students were even given an explicit manual of homosexual
advocacy”.

He added: “Other
dangers exist, if marriage can be redefined so that it no longer means a man and
a woman but two men or two women, why stop there?

“Why not allow three
men or a woman and two men to constitute a marriage, if they pledge their
fidelity to one another? Canada has legalised homosexual marriage, and
litigation is now underway in one Canadian Province to legalise
polygamy.”

Previously, the
Scottish Catholic Bishops’ Conference issued a statement on the proposal in
which they said that “no government can rewrite human nature; the family and
marriage existed before the State and are built on the union between a man and
woman”.

“Any attempt to
redefine marriage is a direct attack on a foundational building block of society
and will be strenuously opposed,” they added.