The Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Diarmuid Martin, has expressed concern at the hasty pace of political debate towards redefining marriage and the family.

Speaking at an Iona Institute in Dublin last night, on the topic ‘The Church’s Teaching on Marriage Today’, the Archbishop said that “ in the current debate normal parliament procedures seem rushed”.

Offering his thoughts on this, “in a personal capacity”, he said: “As a citizen, I would not like to see the instrument of referendum being used to fast-track positions of significance for the life of citizens and the common good. The fact that a number of referendums have been rejected in recent years is, in my opinion, an indication that that the world of politics has not always allowed sufficient time for broad discussion of proposals.”

Returning to his theme of marriage, Archbishop Martin said: “The Church supports marriage as a human institution, just as the State should. There is a sense in which the level of policy support that a government gives to the institution of marriage and the family is the real barometer of the seriousness of its social policy.”

In defence of marriage as being between a man and a woman, Dr Martin stressed that “the fundamental question for me concerns the nature of the relationship between male and female, which I hold is not simply a social construct but which is constitutive of human relations…there are some social constructs around the roles of man and women which have evolved in our societies which do not reflect the true understanding of men and women and which must be changed. But the male-female relationship is not just a social construct. There is something irreplaceable in that relationship between a man and a woman who commit to each other in love and who remain open to the transmission and the nurturing of human life, within an intergenerational framework which contributes to the stability of society.”

Such relationships, he went on, had direct benefits for children too.

“No person exists who is not the fruit of a male and a female. Even if it were possible to clone a child, that child would still bear the genetic imprint of a male and a female. Genetic parentage is not irrelevant…We are all children of a male and a female and this must have relevance to our understanding of the way children should be nurture and educated. Genetic make-up is a fundamental dimension of the intergenerational reality of family.”

With reference to the campaign for a Yes vote in the referendum, Dr Martin insisted that “an ethics of equality does not require uniformity. There can be an ethic of equality which is an ethic of recognising and respecting difference. A pluralist society can be creative in finding ways in which people of same sex orientation have their rights and their loving and caring relationships recognised and cherished in a culture of difference. I am not saying that gay and lesbian people, are unloving or that their love is somehow deficient compared to others, I am taking about a uniqueness in the male-female relationship.”

Last night’s meeting in the Alexander hotel was attended by around 200 people.

The full address can be found here.