Press release from The Iona Institute 

In a talk organised by The Iona Institute to be delivered tonight in the Abbey Hotel, Roscommon, the new Bishop of Elphin, Dr Kevin Doran, will address the topic, ‘Marriage and the Common Good’.

In his talk (text below), Bishop Doran refers to next year’s referendum on same-sex marriage. He says that, “To extend civil marriage to include a relationship between people of the same sex…would be to change the meaning of marriage”.

He says that if we allow same-sex marriage, it will not “just be a case of adding ‘another kind of marriage’ to what we already”. He argues that “the unique relationship between marriage and procreation would disappear completely from the definition of marriage.”

Bishop Doran says that as this is “probably the principal reason for the State to have any interest in regulating marriage, one might ask, why bother regulating it at all?”, in the event of marriage redefinition.

Echoing Pope Francis, he says that children have a right “to grow up with a mother and a father capable of creating a suitable environment for the child’s growth and emotional development”. This is best provided for within marriage.

Bishop Doran states in his talk that opposition to same-sex marriage “is not about homosexuality…it is about the meaning of marriage.”

He says the Catholic Church teaches that people who are homosexual “must always be treated with respect and condemns without reservation words or actions which are intended to injure, ridicule or undermine homosexual people”.

He argues that same-sex couples and others who “live in long-term committed relationships” are entitled to protection and recognition from the State including hospital visitation rights and inheritance rights.