Senior Catholic brands same-sex marriage 'immoral'

One of the most senior Catholic figures in Britain has launched a renewed assault on plans to allow gay people to marry, calling same-sex unions "morally defective".

Former Archbishop of Glasgow Mario Conti, who now holds a symbolic position as an Archbishop Emeritus, published a letter in the Catholic magazine The Tablet outlining his opposition to gay marriage.

In it he warned politicians not to equate "homosexual unions with heterosexual marriage". He wrote: "While it is true, certainly within Catholic social teaching, that governments are not required to make all immoral actions illegal, to many it is unhelpful, unnecessary and indeed profoundly unwise for political action to do quite the opposite, namely to attempt through the law, by equating homosexual unions with heterosexual marriage, to render moral what is in itself morally defective."

His interjection comes as the government in Holyrood seeks the public's views on its plans to introduce gay marriage in Scotland.