LEGAL ACTION to oblige the Catholic Church in England and Wales to hold civil partnership ceremonies for gay couples in its churches in England and Wales “is inevitable” if the British government agrees to change the law, the church has warned.
Last week, a consultation was opened on the issue, but home secretary Theresa May insisted that the Catholic Church and the Church of England – who both oppose the move – would not be forced to hold such ceremonies.
In a statement, the Archbishop of Southwark, Dr Peter Smith, said the prime minister and deputy prime minister had made it clear that they were now considering “a fundamental change to the status of marriage”.
Dr Smith said church ceremonies for gay couples had never been envisaged by the Equality Act passed by Labour when it was in government.
“Marriage does not belong to the state any more than it belongs to the church. It is a fundamental human institution rooted in human nature itself. It is a lifelong commitment of a man and a woman to each other, publicly entered into, for their mutual well-being and for the procreation and upbringing of children.
“No authority – civil or religious – has the power to modify the fundamental nature of marriage. We will be opposing such a change in the strongest terms.
“A consenting minister is perfectly free to hold a religious ceremony either before or after a civil partnership. That is a matter of religious freedom, but it requires no legislation by the state.”
A leading Catholic Church aide, Richard Kornicki, went further, saying Quakers, liberal Jews and Unitarians had been the only religious denominations to push for the change. “These are not mainstream religious groups.”
Such groups were free to seek changes for themselves, he said, but they should not be imposed on others and “nor should it become the norm” because that would leave all churches open to the threat of legal action in “the eternal campaign” to put gay and heterosexual relations on the same level.
The Obama administration said yesterday it would no longer defend the constitutionality of a federal law banning recognition of same-sex marriage. Attorney general Eric Holder said president Barack Obama had concluded that the administration could not defend the federal law which defined marriage as only existing between a man and a woman.
Mr Holder noted that the congressional debate during passage of the Defence of Marriage Act contained “numerous expressions reflecting moral disapproval of gays and lesbians and their intimate and family relationships – precisely the kind of stereotype-based thinking and animus the (constitution’s) equal protection clause is designed to guard against”. – (Additional reporting: AP)