`Bigotry' row over Hume

A SCOTTISH church has been accused of bigotry after its magazine claimed the late Cardinal Basil Hume's final destination could only be Hell.

The Free Presbyterian Church magazine said the Archbishop of Westminster lived and died in the errors of Rome. Cardinal Hume, the leader of the Catholic church in England and Wales, died of cancer in June, aged 76. He was widely praised for helping to bring together different faiths.

But the August issue of The Free Presbyterian Magazinecriticises him for promoting the interests of Catholicism and making the religion more acceptable to the English establishment while feigning support for the ecumenical movement. It added that those who live by the error of salvation by works rather than by faith in Christ alone cannot go to Heaven or even purgatory. It said: "Their final destination can only be Hell."

Ann Widdecombe, the shadow Home Secretary and a prominent convert to Catholicism, said: "We can just dismiss this for the religious bigotry that it is."

Father Tom Connelly, a spokesman for the Catholic church in Scotland, said: "I suspect they are perhaps a little envious of the extraordinary coverage following the death of Cardinal Hume."