Last Updated: Monday, June 16, 2008, 18:18

Bishops restate gay marriage opposition

Charlie Taylor

Ireland’s Catholic bishops have restated their opposition to gay marriage today, claiming that “sexual differentiation is intrinsic to our understanding of the sacrament of marriage”.

In a statement, the bishops said they had addressed the issue of the Christian theology of marriage at a meeting last week.

“In view of the current debate in our society about the nature of marriage, sometimes promoted by individuals or institutions who claim support from Christian ideals, the bishops reiterated that marriage presupposes the mutuality and complementarity of the sexes,” the statement said.

The bishops said that Christian tradition holds that sexual differentiation is intrinsic to our understanding of the sacrament of marriage and said that it had a meaning that “is not reducible to individuals' intentions and society's laws.”

“Marriage is not perceived as just any kind of relationship, but as a quite specific kind of relationship, with certain core characteristics,” the statement added.

The bishops said that marriage involves more than the commitment of two people to each other.

“It is oriented towards the sharing of their lives and the support they will give each other, and also towards the creation of new human beings as the fruit of their love. It is for the sake of these two objectives that the loving marital relationship between a woman and a man needs to be one that is faithful, exclusive and lasting,” the bishops’ statement added.

The statement comes during the 10-day Gay Pride festival, which has the theme Always the Bridesmaid and Never the Bride and is aiming to highlight the lack of partnership rights for the Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender community.

A new Bill is being finalised under which same-sex partners will be able to avail of marriage-like benefits in a range of areas such as property, social welfare, succession, maintenance, pensions and tax.

However, it will not provide any right for same-sex couples to be considered as joint adoptive parents.

Although the new civil partnership legislation has been broadly welcomed, some equality groups claim the only way to achieve equality is to allow gay and lesbian couples to marry and have all the rights and benefits received automatically by married heterosexual couples.