The head of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales has attacked the Government's gay marriage plans.
He said the plans to legalise gay marriage were a "shambles" as he defended the "creative love of God" seen in a union between a man and woman.
In an interview with the BBC, he said the Government had no mandate to change the law.
"There was no announcement in any party manifesto, no Green Paper, no statement in the Queen's Speech," he said.
"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".
The Archbishop also used his Christmas Eve sermon at Westminster Cathedral to defend traditional marriage.
"Sometimes sexual expression can be without the public bond of the faithfulness of marriage and its ordering to new life," he told the congregation.
"Even governments mistakenly promote such patterns of sexual intimacy as objectively to be approved and even encouraged among the young."
