LONDON, DEC. 6, 2005 (Zenit.org).- Homosexual “civil partnerships” will soon become legal in Britain, a development lamented by Catholic bishops.
“The introduction of civil partnerships as a legal institution is bound to have a significant and lasting cultural and social impact,” says Archbishop Peter Smith, chairman of the Department of Christian Responsibility and Citizenship of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales.
“The government has effectively established same-sex marriage in all but name,” the prelate said.
In a communiqué issued today, the archbishop of Cardiff, Wales, says that, as “a result, there is a real danger that the deeply rooted understanding of marriage as a permanent and exclusive relationship between a woman and a man, and as the best context for raising children, will be eroded.”
“What the government needs to do in terms of public policy is support and promote marriage rather than undermine it,” Archbishop Smith added.
“Civil partnership is not based on natural complementarity of male and female and the natural purpose of sexual union cannot be achieved by same sex partnerships, nor can a same sex couple cooperate with God to create new life,” he continued.
“Lifelong marriage between a man and a woman continues to represent an unchanging ideal, and a vital anchor for a rapidly changing world,” the archbishop observed.
He added: “Marriage is recognized to be the most stable and loving context for raising children. For these reasons, it has had and should continue to have a special position in our social and legislative frameworks. Its value to society should be promoted and never diminished.”
