The importance society places “on the role of mothers and fathers in bringing up children” is at the heart of the debate over same-sex marriage, the Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin, Dr Denis Nulty (pictured), has said.

In the first intervention by a senior Church figure in the debate since the Government announced its intention to hold a referendum on same-sex marriage, Bishop Nulty said that the debate was “not about equality or about the false separation of a religious view of marriage from the civil view of marriage”.  

He said: “It is about the very nature of marriage itself and the importance society places on the role of mothers and fathers in bringing up children.  

“With others, the Catholic Church will continue to hold that the differences between a man and woman are not accidental to marriage but fundamental to it and that children have a natural right to a mother and a father and that this is the best environment for them where possible.

Bishop Nulty added: “Married love is a unique form of love between a man and woman which has a special benefit for the whole of society.  

“With others of no particular religious view, the Church regards the family based on marriage between a woman and a man as the single most important institution in any society.  

“To change the nature of marriage would be to undermine it as the fundamental building block of our society.  

And he said that the Church would “participate fully in the democratic debate leading up to the referendum and will seek with others to reaffirm the rational basis for holding that marriage should be reserved for the unique and complementary relationship between a woman and a man from which the generation and upbringing of children is uniquely possible”.

Bishop Nulty also insisted that people who are homosexual “must always be treated with sensitivity, compassion and respect”.

He said: “It is not lacking in sensitivity or respect for people who are homosexual however to point out that same-sex relationships are fundamentally different from opposite sex relationships and that society values the complementary roles of mothers and fathers in the generation and up-bringing of children.”