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Bishops urge TDs: study Why Marriage Matters
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The Irish bishops have indicated yet again their deep concern at the massive harm to society, and to family life in particular, which they believe Minister Dermot Ahern's bill on "civil partnership" will cause.
The committee stage of the Bill has already been completed in the Dáil as the public continues to show virtually no awareness of what is at stake.
As the bishops call for a free vote for all members of the Dáil and the Seanad, Cóir spokesman Richard Greene has accused the Government of ignoring the growing opposition to the bill.
Making clear that voting on the Bill is a serious matter of conscience for politicians, the bishops have appealed to all TDs and Senators to study carefully their previous statement, Why Marriage Matters.
This was an attempt to inform politicians and the public about the dangers in the Bill and to stir voters into action before it is too late. Yet most people are not even aware of its existence.
The Bill, said the statement, is "a fundamental revolution in our understanding of marriage and the family which cannot go unchallenged."
It is also "an extraordinary and far-reaching attack on freedom of conscience and the free practice of religion-which are guaranteed to every citizen under the Constitution."
Why Marriage Matters warned that some provisions in the Bill "constitute a new and dangerous expansion of State power."
By allowing the law to go ahead, it argues, "our society is saying that the permanent union of husband and wife and the generation of new life are now only of relative importance rather than fundamental to the very existence and well being of society as a whole."
It is also a grave injustice "if the state ignores the unique and proper place of husbands and wives, the place of mothers and fathers, and especially the rights of children, who deserve from society a clear understanding of marriage as they grow to sexual maturity."
On the morality of same-sex unions, the statement says they are "contrary to God's plan for sexual love which is intended for the relationship between husband and wife in marriage."
o Why Marriage Matters is available online
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