A Morality We Ignore at Our Peril; AS LABOUR IS FOUND WANTING OVER FAMILY VALUES

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Byline: by Cardinal Keith O'Brien

LATER this year, Pope Benedict XVI will arrive in Scotland from Rome to begin a fourday visit to Great Britain. The fact that we are to have another Papal visit, just 28 years after his predecessor Pope John Paul II came to Scotland, is a source of great joy and pride to all Scottish Catholics.

It is also an opportunity which should make us all pause to ask: 'Where stands Scotland's Christian identity today?' For I believe that never before have such concerted efforts been made to marginalise and exclude Christianity from our society and culture.

Earlier this week, I accused the Labour Government, along with its Scottish Secretary Jim Murphy, of undertaking a systematic and unrelenting attack on family values. I stand by my view. It is a charge I personally put to Gordon Brown when we met in 2008 and I have seen no evidence since then to suggest anything has changed.

It is a charge I do not make lightly. In 2006, when Mr Brown was Chancellor, I met him and took that opportunity to …