THE Pope has stirred an immense hornets nest with his exhortation to his British bishops to fight Labour's Equality Bill with "missionary zeal".

Inevitably there will be a number of groups who express outrage, including athiests, some (but not all) politicians, homosexuals and probably quite a number of Roman Catholics, of which there are 4.1 million in Britain.

The Pope says that part of the proposed legislation, championed by Harriet Harman, is unjust and violates natural law.

It is feared by church leaders that they could be prosecuted for banning practising homosexuals from the clergy if the Bill becomes law.

We are certain that hysterical comments will be fired in all directions because of the Pope's intervention, which is based on the teaching that homosexuality is unnatural because it does not lead to procreation.

The Catholic Church's clergy, already male-only, is not open to self-declared homosexuals.

Aside from the polarised views that both the legislation and the Pope's pronouncements will draw, including inevitable references to child abuse by some priests, it is interesting to note how far the legislators have moved away from the tenets of Christianity - still the official state religion in its Anglican form.

Many people, the majority perhaps, will see this as a good thing, in that they do not believe in the deity themselves and do not believe the laws of the land should be framed according to Christian teaching.

Nevertheless the point that open-minded people should consider is whether legislators should have the power to force believers to act against the teachings of their faith or face prosecution under the law.

This is the crux of the matter.

Even with abortion it is still the case that doctors who believe a medical termination is equivalent to killing an unborn child are not obliged to carry out the operation.

But under this new legislation it is feared that Bishops would face legal sanctions if they refused to ordain practising homosexuals.

It seems to us that Ms Harman and her like are happy to use the word conscience in a social context but do not appear to recognise it in a spiritual one.