The head of the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland has condemned the Government's Trident nuclear weapons system.

Writing in The Times on Monday, Cardinal Keith O'Brien said Trident was a "morally reprehensible" weapon of mass destruction.

In his article, the Cardinal states that "in any and all circumstances the use of a nuclear weapon would be immoral".

"Since, to use these weapons would be immoral, to threaten their use is immoral and to hold them with a view to threatening their use is also immoral."

Cardinal O'Brien warned that the UK was undermining its moral authority in the world by continuing to hold nuclear weapons.

"Rejecting Trident, not in 2024 but right now, will bring economic dividends at home and give moral leadership abroad. It would allow us, at last, to stand on the moral high ground and to invite the nuclear armed nations of the world to join us there," he said.

The Church has long opposed the Trident system. In 2006, its bishops issued a statement in April 2006 in which they warned that the use of weapons of mass destruction would be a "crime against God and against humanity". Their stance was subsequently endorsed by the Vatican.