The Offences Aggravated By Prejudice (Scotland) Act

I would like to comment upon Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone's remarks concerning what he considers to be the relationship between homosexuality and paedophilia. However, the recent passage of Patrick Harvie's Offences Aggravated by Prejudice (Scotland) Act through the Scottish Parliament dictates that it is prudent for me to avoid the discussion of human sexuality altogether.

The impact that this law will have upon the ability of religions to promote their doctrines may be unfathomable. Freedom of conscience might still exist in Scotland. However, it could very well be the case that Catholic clergy might now be liable to arrest for doing nothing more than preaching Catholic doctrine for the first time in a long, long while. History shows that such laws are never likely to stand alone, but always form one thread of a carefully woven web of laws designed to chip away at liberty one stroke at a time. To go from dictating what can be preached one day to dictating what can be believed the next is a very short step. If his law were ever to be abused in the hands of an incompetent and malicious prosecutor like a stick of dynamite in a child's, I'm quite sure that Mr. Harvie might one day at last be able to indict a Catholic archbishop.

Mr. Harvie has never been elected to the Scottish Parliament on a majority vote.