• Outrage in U.K. Over Pope’s Anti-Equality Remarks

A Feb. 3 Associated Press article on Benedict’s remarks noted that the Pope, in a Feb. 1 address, had told Catholic bishops of England and Wales that British law had inflicted "unjust limitations on the freedom of religious communities to act in accordance with their beliefs," a common complaint voiced by religious conservatives about anti-discrimination laws. Benedict also claimed that such laws ran counter to "the natural law upon which the equality of all human beings is grounded and by which it is guaranteed." Anti-gay religious conservatives often cite "natural law" when condemning homosexuals or homosexual relationships, which the Catholic Church views as "intrinsically dissolute."