A bit of current affairs for you now. Last week the Guardian reported that Pope Benedict XVI had spoken to a collection of Bishops from England and Wales recently, in preparation for his planned visit on 16th-19th September this year.
Ben (as I like to call him) was concerned that the UK's equality laws 'threatened religious freedom' and 'ran contrary to natural law', which to me sounds like it could be taken as just a tad homophobic, considering the recent kerfuffle over catholic adoption agencies illegally discriminating against gay couples. The other affect that the equality laws have on catholicism is that they make it harder for churches to exclude job applications from gay people and people who've changed their gender. It'll be interesting to see whether the visit runs smoothly or not...
The National Secular Society is already planning its protests around the Pope's visit, pointing out that the state will be presented with a £20 million bill for an old man to visit and complain about equal rights and promote discrimination
