A letter criticising the Scottish Government for supporting plans to legalise gay marriage will be read out in all of the country’s Catholic parishes later.

THE virulent opposition to same-sex marriage, when one strips away all of the extraneous religious ideology, is, at its core, a battle to protect the last bastion of legitimised discrimination.

Pope Benedict XVI flew in to Scotland today to begin the first papal state visit to the UK.

A papal aide who compared the UK to a “Third World country” was facing growing pressure to apologise today as the Pope flew in for his historic visit.

Pope Benedict’s historic arrival in Britain today was overshadowed by comments comparing the nation with a “third world country”.

The Pope’s visit to Britain this week will allow the country to gain “fresh energy and inspiration” from its “rich Christian inheritance”, a leading Catholic said today.

Hundreds of thousands of people joined hands to form a human band around Scotland’s capital today in protest at world poverty.

More people than expected turned out today to demand action on world poverty at one of Scotland’s biggest ever demonstrations.

Bob Geldof is planning to ask the Pope to attend a rock concert in Scotland’s capital after the G8 Summit, it emerged today.