Scotland: Bishop Joseph Devine anti-gay, say stars
by Stuart MacDonald UK Times Online
Sir Ian McKellen and Simon Callow accuse leading Catholic of homophobia
Sir Ian McKellen and Simon Callow, Britain’s most prominent gay film actors, have launched an outspoken attack on Bishop Joseph Devine, the second most senior figure in the Scottish Catholic church, accusing him of preaching “homophobia” from the pulpit.
McKellen and Callow strongly criticised a speech made by Devine earlier this year, in which he singled out the decision to award McKellen an honour from the Queen as an example of the dangers of the increasing power of the gay lobby.
During his speech at St Aloysius college in Glasgow, Devine said: “In this new year’s honours list, actor Ian McKellen was honoured for his work on behalf of homosexuals. A century ago Oscar Wilde was locked up and put in jail.”
Callow said senior religious figures could not accept the changing attitudes in society towards gay relationships.
“The bishop is in my view a profoundly ignorant and stupid man in his views,” he said. “If he finds it offensive that gay people want to celebrate those gay people who died in the Holocaust — which was a large number of people — then he’s also profoundly unchristian.
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