The leader of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales has used his Christmas Eve sermon to attack the government's plans for gay marriage.
Archbishop of Westminster Vincent Nichols called the plans a "shambles".
Speaking at Westminster Cathedral, he said the government had no mandate to push through same-sex marriage laws.
Two weeks ago, the government unveiled plans to allow gay marriage in England and Wales but said no organisation would be forced to carry out services.
Meanwhile, the outgoing Archbishop of Canterbury is to admit that the Church of England has been damaged by the recent vote against women bishops in his final Christmas sermon in the role.
Dr Rowan Williams is to retire from the post at the end of the month.
'Shambolic' processDuring his midnight sermon, Archbishop Nichols said of the gay marriage plans: "There was no announcement in any party manifesto, no Green Paper, no statement in the Queen's Speech. And yet here we are on the verge of primary legislation.
"From a democratic point-of-view, it's a shambles. George Orwell would be proud of that manoeuvre, I think the process is shambolic."
He claims during a "period of listening", those who responded were "7-1 against same-sex marriage".
In the past, the head of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales has likened committed gay relationships to "profound friendships".
The government has previously announced that the Church of England and Church in Wales will be banned in law from offering same-sex marriages, with other religious organisations able to "opt in" to holding ceremonies.
Announcing the plans, Culture Secretary Maria Miller said: "European law already puts religious freedoms beyond doubt, and we will go even further by bringing in an additional 'quadruple legal lock'.
"But it is also a key aspect of religious freedom that those bodies who want to opt in should be able to do so."
Referendum callAlthough the Church of England has opposed gay marriage and is expected to oppose the government's bill, it has also said it was not consulted on a plan for the bill to include a specific ban on it conducting gay marriages. And the Archbishop of Wales, Dr Barry Morgan, said he thought the ban was a "step too far".
But Muslim leaders have called for the same legal exemptions as the Church of England in gay marriage legislation, with the Muslim Council of Britain saying it was "appalled" by the government's "utterly discriminatory" proposals.
The Scottish government has also published its proposed legislation to introduce gay marriage and a draft bill is now being compiled to be put to the Scottish Parliament.
Under the plans, religious and belief bodies would need to "opt in" to perform same-sex marriages.
Scottish ministers have insisted that, as in England and Wales, no part of the religious community would be forced to hold same-sex weddings in churches but both the Church of Scotland and Roman Catholic Church are opposed to the gay marriage proposals.
Earlier this year Cardinal Keith O'Brien, leader of the Catholic Church in Scotland, urged the Scottish government to hold a referendum on proposals to legalise same-sex marriage.
And in a newspaper article, he wrote that the proposal for same-sex marriage represented a "grotesque subversion of a universally accepted human right".
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