Pope Benedict xvi issued a verbal assault on the British Labor Party February 1 as he readied his bishops for the battle ahead.

His target was the Labor Party’s equality legislation, which opponents fear would force churches to hire homosexuals or transsexuals, even if it violated their religious beliefs. The bill is unpopular among British Conservatives, and has been blocked by the House of Lords three times.

Addressing 35 Catholic bishops from England and Wales, the pope strongly criticized the legislation, and urged the bishops to work together to oppose it with “missionary zeal.”

“Your country is well-known for its firm commitment to equality of opportunity for all members of society,” he told them. “Yet, as you have rightly pointed out, the effect of some of the legislation designed to achieve this goal has been to impose unjust limitations on the freedom of religious communities to act in accordance with their beliefs.

“In some respects it actually violates the natural law upon which the equality of all human beings is grounded and by which it is guaranteed.”

But this was more than just an attack on an individual law. “[I]n the broader context, his attack could be regarded as not just on the Equality Bill but on the whole of Britain’s Labor administration,” wrote the Times’ religion correspondent, Ruth Gledhill.

“Is that a direct attack on Labor policies?” asked Damian Thompson in the Telegraph online, referring to Benedict’s statements. “Yes.”

The Labor Party has irked the Vatican with its policies on homosexual adoption and religious schools. Now the pope has spoken out.

This outburst is unprecedented. “It is highly unusual for a foreign head of state or church leader to intervene directly in the legislative process of a Protestant state,” writes Gledhill.

“Clearly, the [pope] is disgusted by the anti-religious impulses of the British government, particularly as enshrined in Harriet Harman’s Equality Bill,” writes Thompson. “He wants the bishops to challenge them forcefully.”

The pope told the bishops he expected a unified and forceful response to this issue—rather than the lackluster and divided response they have had to other issues. He emphasized that “the Catholic community in your country needs to speak with a united voice.”

“It is important to recognize dissent for what it is, and not to mistake it for a mature contribution to a balanced and wide-ranging debate,” he said, clearly frustrated by the liberal elements among the Catholics in Britain that refuse to toe the official line.

“I would ask you to be generous in implementing the provisions of the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus,” he said, referring to his recent invitation for Anglicans to join the Catholic Church.

“[T]he pope should not need to tell the bishops publicly to be generous in this respect,” writes Thompson; “it rather reads as if he suspects that they might not be as welcoming as they should be.”

The pope has a carefully laid plan for assault on the Church of England. He wants to make sure it’s not scuppered by his own bishops.

“[D]espite many friendly passages, this is not the message that the bishops of England and Wales were hoping for,” writes Thompson. But he points out that the pope has already begun to confront the problem. The former archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor—the most senior Catholic clergyman in England—was replaced by the more conservative Archbishop Vincent Nichols last April, as the pope worked to demolish the liberals’ power base.

During the same address Monday, the pope announced that he would be visiting Britain in November. Watch this visit. This week’s speech by Benedict gives us a glimpse of the pope’s battle strategy in his campaign to win back Britain: a warm welcome for those who agree with him, and strong confrontation of those who disagree.

In the run-up to that future confrontation, the pope is getting his own ranks in order, and laying the groundwork for his assault. For more information on the Vatican’s agenda, see our article “The Church That Swallowed a Church.”