A BISHOP has launched an attack on the "gay lobby" in Scotland and said there was a war against Christian values.

A BISHOP has launched an attack on the "gay lobby" in Scotland and said there was a war against Christian values.

The Right Rev Joseph Devine, the Bishop of Motherwell, told a Glasgow audience that the gay lobby presented "an image of a group of people under persecution".

In the fourth of the Gonzaga Lectures held at the city's St Aloysius' College, Bishop Devine also spoke about sectarianism, praising joint-campus schools and noting the significant rise of Polish Catholics in Scotland.

He vowed to "fight on against the forces of secularism" saying this was "more dangerous as a threat because it is much more insidious".

He said: "The homosexual lobby has been extremely effective in aligning itself with minority groups. It is ever present at the service each year for the Holocaust memorial.

"We neglect the gay movement at our peril.

"I want to ask you if you are able to see the giant conspiracy that's taking place before our eyes?"

He said: "It's a very small group of people, but very active and organised, and extremely indulgent. The opposition know exactly what they're doing. We don't."

On being asked how Catholic parents should "come to terms with a child's mission to be come homosexual," Bishop Devine replied: "I would try to handle it with a degree of compassion but I would not tolerate that kind of behaviour.

"I would not condemn, but I would not tolerate it."