[Isaac]

The Pope is now fighting the new law

Pope Benedict XVI conferred with cardinals as he sought to put an early stamp on the papacy, but already faced his first test as pontiff over a controversial Spanish vote on gay marriage.

Thanking cardinals for their support, he said he was aware of the intense burden thrust upon him as leader of 1.1 billion Roman Catholics.

"I know well the nature of this mission that I was assigned," he said. "It is not about honours, but about service."

The 78-year-old pope, who was applauded when he entered the Clementine Hall in the Apostolic Palace, asked the prelates for their continuing support.

"Please never let me be deprived of your support," he urged.

"Your spiritual closeness, your wise counsel, and your active cooperation will be for me a gift for which I will always be grateful."

Each cardinal then went up to the pope in turn, knelt, and kissed his hand before exchanging a few words, in images carried by Vatican television.

Earlier Friday, denouncing a bill by Spain's lower house of parliament that would allow homosexuals to marry and adopt children, the cardinal head of the Pontifical Council on the Family said it was the duty of Christians to oppose "iniquitous" laws.

"A law as profoundly iniquitous as this one is not an obligation, it cannot be an obligation," Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo told Italy's Corriere della Sera newspaper.

"One cannot say that a law is right simply because it is law."

Spain is a traditionally deeply Catholic country, and King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia are due to attend Sunday's inauguration of the pope.

Benedict XVI is a deeply conservative pope who has taken a strong line in the past on gays, calling homosexual orientation a tendency toward "intrinsic moral evil."

His handling of the latest controversy will be scrutinised for clues as to how he intends to drive forward his papacy in a Church also divided over other hot-button issues such as contraception, abortion, divorce and the ordination of women.

The Spanish bill, which is expected to be passed by the Senate upper house after its approval Thursday by lower house deputies, would allow gays to marry as well as adopt children.

Trujillo said that anyone asked to conduct such a ceremony should exercise the same right to conscientious objection as doctors asked to perform abort a foetus.

"This is not a matter of choice: all Christians ... must be prepared to pay the highest price, including the loss of a job," he said.

The new pope, who was elected Tuesday by his 114 cardinal colleagues, will be inaugurated Sunday at a mass expected to draw half a million people and a clutch of world leaders.

They will include a strong delegation out of his native Germany, including Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and President Horst Koehler as well as thousands of ordinary Germans now beginning to flock into Rome.

At the mass he will formally receive the insignia of his office, a pallium -- a circular band of fabric with a pendant and decorated with square crosses -- and the Fisherman's Ring with the image of Saint Peter, a disciple of Jesus and the first pope in the Church's 2,000-year history.

On Thursday, Pope Benedict sought to ensure continuity and stability after the 26-year pontificate of his mentor pope John Paul II by confirming the same Vatican team in place.

The Vatican said he confirmed Cardinal Angelo Sodano as secretary of state, effectively his number two, as well as Leonardo Sandri as Sodano's deputy and Giovanni Lajolo as the Vatican's foreign minister.

There is one notable job still vacant though -- his own former position as head of the Vatican's top doctrinal authority.

Also Thursday, Rome's chief rabbi said the new pope had promised to foster dialogue with Jews begun under his predecessor.

Riccardo Di Segni said Pope Benedict sent a message saying he was putting "trust in the help of the Almighty to continue and to strengthen the dialogue and collaboration with the sons and daughters of the Jewish people." The last pope, who died on April 2, won widespread admiration in Israel not only for being the first pontiff to visit a synagogue but also for his work in reconciling the Roman Catholic Church with the Jewish people.

So laws that give people equal rights regardless of their sexuality is wicked and natural feelings of a homosexual nature that those individuals have no control over are automatically evil?

He's been in office for a week and already I have no respect for the Pope.

"One cannot say that a law is right simply because it is law."
I think that says it all.