EDINBURGH (CWNews.com) - Scotland's eight Catholic bishops have declared their support for Cardinal Thomas Winning fight against the classroom promotion of homosexuality as a valid lifestyle.

    On Sunday, priests throughout the country will read a message from the bishops warning that children will be left vulnerable by scrapping of the Section 28 law and asking churchgoers to pray for their Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) when they vote on the controversial legislation.

    The bishops' message reads: "To take away a law which prohibits the promotion of homosexuality and replace it with 'guidelines' risks leaving our children extremely vulnerable to the message that a homosexual lifestyle is an equally valid moral choice to marriage.

    It continues: "We ask all people of good will to pray for our legislators in their different tasks. We pray we can build a Scotland of justice for all, free of bigotry and intolerance but ever mindful of God's law and morality."

    A spokesman for the Catholic Church told the Daily Record: "It is a message of solidarity to show that it is not just Cardinal Winning who is speaking on his own on this."

    According to today's Universe newspaper, the British government has turned to the Catholic Church for help in sorting out the whole Section 28 row. Senior Labour MP Stuart Bell told the Catholic media: "The debate in the media, led by the churches, is killing this bill. So the government has to be very wise and listen carefully to what the churches have to say.

    "A conscience is a conscience," Bell continued. "and you cannot ask an MP to vote against their conscience. It would be smart if Labour was to allow its Anglican and Catholic MSPs to vote against it, rather than force them to either vote against their conscience or abstain."

    The National Board of Catholic Women and the Union of Catholic Mothers have also joined the campaign against the repeal of Section 28.