The Catholic Bishops have been having their spring meeting for the past three days and the press conference today saw them complain about unfair treatment by the media and also express their concerns about the civil partnership bill.
The Press release sent out at the end of the meeting says that the bishops are going to publish a leaflet on Marriage.
‘Why marriage matters’ – statement by the Bishops’ Conference on the Civil Partnership Bill Bishops agreed to publish a leaflet ‘Marriage matters’ in support of marriage and family life. This leaflet expresses concern about aspects of the Civil Partnership Bill, currently before the Oireachtas. The leaflet summarises key elements of Catholic teaching on marriage between a man and woman. It reiterates the importance of the family as the natural primary and fundamental unit of society and therefore deserving of special protection by the State. It also highlights that other forms of relationships are not of the same nature and status as that of marriage as the basis of the family.
This information leaflet will be released as a statement, published by Veritas, made available in dioceses and on www.catholicbishops.ie. Bishops encouraged everyone concerned to inform themselves and to read ‘Marriage Matters’.
Patsy McGarry reports in the Irish Times this evening
Bishop Jones also expressed grave concern about the Civil Partnership Bill at the press conference. He said the bishops had discussed taken a Constitutional action against the Bill should it become law. “As you know marriage and the family are enshrined in the Constitution and the State has an obligation to protect and promote marriage and family life,? he said.
“We are really very concerned that the Civil Partnership Bill is going to undermine marriage by conferring all the rights on same sex unions as marriage, equating same sex union to marriage itself,? he said.
Where the refusal of the Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern to allow an opt out clause for people who had conscience problems when it came to association or involvement with same sex ceremonies he said the bishops were “very worried about that. Very worried.
The people involved in the ceremonies beyond the couples are the registrars, Bishop. And they are simply being required to do their jobs. And we know you don’t give a toss about this conscientious objection and just don’t want any rights given to ‘the gays’.
Of course they are late to the party here – the bishops intervention comes 8 months after the publication of the bill when it’s about to enter committee stage and supposedly long enough after the publication of the Murphy and Ryan reports for their graces to rear their heads. It’s Civil Partnership but the church leaders are far from civil and of course siding with the extremists (yes they are!) who will be partying for days or at least trying to. David Quinn’s phone calls giving out to them earlier this year have been productive! (Yes he did call them giving out loads that they were chickens not saying anything).
Update: More from Patsy McGarry on the forthcoming episcopal (m) utterings in Thursday’s Irish Times including the line that Same Sex Unions are ‘incapable of realising the specific communion of persons that is marriage’. Well if it’s their particular communion that we can’t realise that’s fine so, that’s not what most same sex couples wish to ‘aspire to’.
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You know, I think a challenge to CP legislation – or indeed marriage, if it were ever introduced as well – might actually help the push for equality and recognition. Even (or especially) if such a challenge was successful.
That might be a risky view to take, but I do think that such blatant oppression would rouse those who are apathetic in their words/deeds but who are in reality either supportive or indifferent towards same-sex couples.
Am I wrong in thinking that?
Bring it on eh? Well those who need the protection – any protection right now won’t be too amused. But I see where you are going on it, however even uttering this stuff will help bring out the apathetic/indifferent. And if Drennan keeps on kissing rings..well..
Is it not high time that some of these bishops were brought to court to answer for their lies and negligence? If someone had the money to start a civil action maybe it would keep them busy enough to leave the rest of the population alone to get on with their lives and exercise their freedoms without interference. First, one of them suggests that parishioners should pay for the catholic church’s employees’ crimes and now this. It’s intolerable.
I’m sorry i don’t get how a ‘challenge’ by the discredited clergy will help equality. Any flustering about by the clergy will only serve to distract from dealing with the issue of how the catholic church has utterly breached the trust of the people.IMO this us just part of an attempt to deflect attention from the church’s woes, which may sink the institution in the long term. From Bishop Jones’s comments tonight, he just doesn’t “get” that his instititution is the problem.
I’d imagine the pleas of the church are being listened to respectfully but ignored as the reality is same-sex couples need some sort of protection rather than none. I’ll be utterly predictably and state that the CP Bill is a matter of urgency for many lesbian and gay couples and their families. More widely, it is time for a clear separation of church and state – now that’s something that would lead me to say “bring it”…
Anyway, when is the Bill being debated further? Will it be before this Dail falls apart?
Sean the committee stage is on 24th March – will blog that later!
I just saw part of the press conference on The Vincent Brown Show. Priests are weird.
I’m all with the church taking a case for the issue of protecting the family, as we all know the constitution does not define family as man and woman, the church does. Let them champion the issue and let us clarify that the union sought is not marriage in any reference to the religious oppressive union for the ‘restriction of women as the property of men’ as has been the position held by our ‘moral compass’ for so long and if anything were to become improved it would in fact be the redesigning of the scope of state marriage and would in fact better serve us in achieving equality. As for the partnership bill this is a complete farse of ‘gay is similar but not the same’, i would love a good old church morality debate and really enjoy them footing the bill of civil action against the state that has enabled there poison.
Maman Poulet » Catholic Bishops issue another statement on Civil Partnership Bill // Jun 17, 2010 at 00:57
[...] LGBT, Same Sex Partnerships Last March following their spring meeting the Catholic Bishops issued a statement and published a leaflet on marriage and the family. Yesterday they met for the summer meeting and [...]
But the issues of most concern were not so much its affect on same sex couples but the very really changes for cohabiting unmarried heterosexual couples.
The noise concerning LGTB is just noise as the real changes were elsewhere. Characterising the bishops as homophobic was unreasonable and expected as it stiffled proper debate on sicial policy.
For my money I look at the Civil Partnership Act as being a con and had no problem with its provisions for LGBT’s .
Mine and other peoples problems with it and a large part of the Bishops concerns related to Heterosexuals. The easiest way of stiffling this debate was to accuse people of homophobia and it was very effective.
Shame on those who used this tactic.