The Conservative MP Ms Ann Widdecombe has condemned comments made in this month's edition of the Free Presbyterian Magazine in Scotland in which it said Cardinal Basil Hume's final destination could only be hell.
Ms Widdecombe, who converted to Catholicism after the Church of England approved the ordination of women to the priesthood, was singled out in the article as an example of someone who had "perverted to Rome", and she was scathing in her criticism of the article yesterday.
"We can just dismiss this for the religious bigotry that it is. No man can set himself up in the place of God and this church shouldn't be trying. One can only pray for them. They will only be listened to by other bigots and zealots who subscribe to this magazine," she said.
The editor of the magazine, the Rev Neil Ross, a minister of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland, told The Irish Times yesterday that he was surprised by the adverse reaction to his editorial, entitled "The Advance of Rome under Hume". However, he said he did not believe Roman Catholics would be so "thin-skinned" as to be upset by his comments.
Resolute in his defence of the editorial, Mr Ross insisted that while Cardinal Hume was an affable and friendly man, as the head of Roman Catholics his object was the advancement of the doctrines of Rome to which his church was "diametrically opposed".
"I was not writing about him as George Hume, but as head of the Roman Catholic Church. He did his job. I am echoing the teaching of the Bible. If Cardinal Hume did abide by the teachings of Rome, I cannot in all conscience say that heaven was his destination," he said.
In his editorial, Mr Ross wrote that in the midst of all the tributes paid to Cardinal Hume, who died of cancer in June, it should not be forgotten that it was an "ominous day for Britain" when he became the leader of Roman Catholics in England and Wales. He urged his members to pray that "the rapid progress of Romanism in the nation under Hume's leadership would not only be brought to a halt but drastically reversed".
One must assume that Cardinal Hume "died in the errors of Rome", he wrote. "Such a man cannot have heaven as his home; neither can purgatory be his abode, for that is a figment of the imagination. Those who imbibe, and live by, the great and Christ-dishonouring error of salvation by works rather than by faith in Christ alone . . . their final destination can only be hell.
"Hume, by his aura of saintliness and skilful diplomacy, played a very prominent and influential part in making these errors more acceptable to many - the result being that immortal souls are further deluded and the danger to our nation increased."
Mr Ross also criticised the tributes paid to Cardinal Hume and the ecumenical agenda he pursued during his life, describing the comments of the British Prime Minister, Mr Blair, as "extravagant". A spokesman for the Catholic Church in Scotland, Father Tom Connelly, said he suspected the article was born out of envy of the "extraordinary" tributes and coverage in the media after Cardinal Hume's death.