The Archbishop of Armagh today warned that the Government will be making the same mistakes as Britain and the United States if it introduces legislation to give cohabiting couples the same rights as married couples.
Speaking at the 11th annual Ceifin Conference in Co Clare, Cardinal Sean Brady said international surveys showed children born outside of marriage are more likely to be unemployed, use drugs or get involved in crime.
He told the conference that the Government is undermining the will of God if it doesn’t protect the special status of marriage in the Constitution.
“Ireland looks set to repeat the mistakes of societies like Britain and the US by introducing legislation which will promote cohabitation, remove most incentives to marry and grant same-sex couples the same rights as marriage in all but adoption,” he said.
The Government published its Civil Partnership Bill last June and it is expected to become law during 2009, but many Fianna Fáil TDs are opposed to it.
Dr Brady said the legislation would dissolve the special status of marriage between a man and woman enshrined in the Constitution.
“Those who are committed to the probity of the Constitution, to the moral integrity of the Word of God and to the precious human value of marriage between a man and a woman as the foundation of society may have to pursue all avenues of legal and democratic challenge to the published legislation,” he told the conference.
“If we have the good of children and of society at heart then it is also clear that we need to try and maximise the number of children being raised by a married mother and father,” he added.
Any change in the current laws would signal the greatest revolution in the history of the Irish family, the cardinal told his audience.
“But will it be a revolution which promotes the common good of our society? Will it really help children and married couples or will it further erode marriage at a time when research and experience point to the value of marriage for children and society?”
He added: “The priority of the family over society and over the state has to be reaffirmed. The family does not exist for society or the state, but society and the state exist for the family.
He said the Government’s proposed legislation would give "de facto marriage rights" to cohabiting or same-sex couples - and should be blocked.
Dr Brady cited studies in Britain and the United States that suggest children born outside of marriage are more likely to suffer family breakdown, do worse at school, suffer poorer health and face problems of unemployment, drugs and crime.
The Archbishop of Armagh was speaking on the theme of "The Family as the Foundation of Society" at the 11th annual Ceifin Conference, which debates social issues.
Also speaking at the two-day conference, Fr Harry Bohan said that family and community - two systems which held Irish society together for generations - will crumble if not protected.
Fr Bohan said: “A social revolution has been taking place long before the recent economic revolution and the extraordinary thing is this has been happening with very little debate.”
The 11th annual conference, themed "Family Life Today - The Greatest Revolution", is discussing the role of family in modern society and its relationship with school, work and the local community.
Family law expert Geoffrey Shannon, economist Jim Power and clinical psychologist and Irish Timescolumnist Marie Murray will also deliver papers.
For the first time, the event has invited young parents from dozens of villages and towns around the country.
Cardinal Brady was criticised this evening for being "out of step" with modern Ireland.
Young Fine Gael President Barry Walsh said the Cardinal's latest foray into the world of politics was "regrettable."
"Cardinal Brady calls for civil partnership legislation to be blocked, and his inference that such legislation would run contrary to the "moral integrity of the word of God" is inflammatory, and does not contribute anything to the rational debate, which he himself has called for," he said.
"He would seem to be completely out of step with the opinions of ordinary Catholics, and with the country at large, since successive polls have shown strong support for civil partnership, particularly among young people."
Moninne Griffith, Coordinator of MarriagEquality, an organization that campaigns for civil marriage for gay and lesbian people, said Cardinal Brady's comments continue to stigmatize children raised by gay parents.
"All adults and children are entitled to equality regardless of their sexuality or the sexuality
of their parents, this however is not the case and must change," she said.
The executive director of the Irish branch of Amnesty International Colm O'Gorman claimed Dr Brady's comments served to further stigmatise children living in same-sex families.
He accused the Cardinal of engaging in "a cliched, ideologically-driven, maligned, bigoted discussion that fails to recognise the central rights of children who find themselves in families where they are being lovingly cared for
and parented by people who have to be in same-sex relationships."
Additional reporting PA
