A Catholic marriage advisory service in Cork has forfeited a quarter million euro annual Government grant because it does not want to diverge from its ethos which says that marriage can only take place between a man and a woman. The centre had been instructed to give marriage counselling to same-sex couples.

The Cork Marriage Counselling Centre (CMCC) is a service of the Catholic, Cork & Ross Social Services and has been working with couples since the 1970s. It receives between €250,000 and €300,000 a year in funding from Tusla, but the arrangement is now at an end, even though the CMCC has been dealing with a steady stream of clients.

Staff at the Centre were dismayed by the decision and appeared to fault the Centre for not caving into Tusla’s demands.

“It has always been the policy of the centre to welcome everyone regardless of means or status,” they said in a statement. “We believe the loss of this low-cost service to the people of Cork who can’t afford to pay for private counselling is shameful.” The statement said staff were not consulted on the decision by CRSS to not sign the service- level agreement and asked how another Catholic agency, Accord, had been able to do so while CMCC did not.

It had been announced in August that Accord would comply with the new strictures and offer its marital counselling service to same-sex couples.

President of Accord Bishop Denis Nulty told the Irish Independent at the time that they “can’t refuse people” and indicated the move was in line with Pope Francis’ lead in the papal document, Amoris Laetitia, the ‘Joy of Love’. The document does not require Church services to counsel same-sex couples. It does speak of the need to accompany people but does not make clear what this means in every context.