The Catholic bishops in Ireland have launched a new pastoral statement outlining and explaining the Church’s vision of marriage.
Bishop Liam McDaid, chairman of the Bishops’ Council for Marriage and Family, and Bishop Kevin Doran of Elphin launched the 16-page letter “The Meaning of Marriage” in Maynooth yesterday. The bishops say in the document that “Marriage is a unique relationship different from all others” and that “to seek to re-define the 
[1]nature of marriage would be to undermine it as the fundamental building block of our society”.
Catholic Ireland reports that “the statement is currently being distributed by the country’s 1,300 parishes and it is also available online.
Bishop Doran and Bishop McDaid underlined that the Church believes marriage to be the best environment for children to grow up in.
Bishop McDaid echoed Pope Francis’ view that every child has a right to a father and a mother.
He said the pastoral statement was intended to “put before our people again the Christian understanding of marriage – a communion of life and love between a man and a woman, in a union for life which is open to new life, and which provides the best and most stable environment for children to grow up and develop in”.
The statement also pushes back against the idea of marriage as merely being a personal commitment. “Marriage is not merely a private institution. The well-being of the family and its place in society is not simply a matter for the husband and wife but for society as a whole. It is given special recognition by society because it is the place where children learn what it means to be members of their family and of society.”
In the pastoral statement, the bishops acknowledge that those who call for legal recognition of same-sex marriage see it as a matter of fairness, equality and civil rights.
But they explain, “The Church holds that basic human rights must be afforded to all people. This can and should be done without sacrificing the institution of marriage and family and the fundamental role they play in society.”
Asked about inheritance and hospital visitation rights, Bishop Doran of Elphin said the reality is that there are couples in Irish society who live in long-term committed relationships who are not necessarily married. He said these had to be catered for but not at the expense of marriage.
According to Bishop Doran, the bishops’ opposition to the Government’s proposed redefinition of marriage in next year’s referendum “is not about homosexuality – it is about the meaning of marriage and the value that we place on that and the importance we see in marriage for children and for their well-being”.
“There can sometimes be an assumption that you can take same sex relationships and call them marriage and put them up there as another item on the menu alongside the existing understanding of marriage.”
But he added that if the law changes and extends marriage to include same-sex couples it changes the meaning of marriage for everybody.
“You can’t have both – it is either one or the other,” he challenged.
The Irish bishops, he said, hope that the referendum on the redefinition of marriage will be defeated and he warned that experience elsewhere in the world showed that when the matter has been put to referendum, it has often been rejected.
The bishops also note that couples face many challenges to building a strong marriage and Bishops Doran and McDaid called on the Government to address problems such as inadequate housing and lack of employment which can prevent a couple from getting married.
The bishops conclude their pastoral statement by highlighting that “As Catholics, it is not sufficient for us to talk about the importance of family. We also have a responsibility to do all that we can do to offer practical support for marriage and family in our parish communities, in our liturgies and our pastoral action and as individual members of society, through our social and political actions.”