Catholic’s call for marriage halt

CATHOLIC BISHOPS have followed the Church of England in asking the Government not to convert all same-sex partnerships into marriages.

‘There are those lesbian and gay Catholics who have entered into civil partnerships in order to secure important and necessary legal rights , but who do not wish to become either married in the eyes of the law or have their civil partnerships automatically ‘converted’ into a marriage’, the Bishops say in their submission to the Civil Partnership Review.

‘To remove the legal right of these samesex couples, who do not wish to ‘marry,’ to enter into a civil partnership would remove legal rights for such people in the future’.

The bishops say they have received representations from lesbian and gay Catholics who do not wish to enter into marriage because of deeply-held religious objections but who do wish to continue to have the option of a civil partnership.

The submission is signed on behalf of the bishops by the Most Rev Peter Smith, Archbishop of Southwark and chairman of the Catholic board for social responsibility and citizenship. It makes a strong appeal to religious liberty. ‘In terms of the Equality Act framework’, it states, ‘it is important that those who share the protected charac- teristics of sexuality and religion continue to be able to manifest their religious beliefs whilst not being denied the legal protection offered by civil partnerships’.

As in the case of Church of England bishops, many Catholic bishops were opposed or lukewarm when civil partnerships were first introduced but credible reports say that Pope Francis tried and failed to get the Argentine Bishops’ Conference to support them when he was Archbishop of Buenos Aires. The Catholic Church has accepted teachers in its schools who are in civil partnerships but there are likely to be reservations about employing people as teachers in Catholic schools who are in a same-sex marriage.