Same-sex referendum is ‘not about equality’

The same-sex marriage referendum is not about equality, but a radical change in the meaning of marriage, according to Bishop Kevin Doran.

Speaking in Donaghmede parish in Dublin this week, the Bishop of Elphin said he was recently asked by a politician “what is so wrong about being nice to people who are equal to us in every respect, but whose sexual orientation is different?” He said the answer was “that there is nothing wrong with being nice to them, but that is not what the referendum is about”.

“The question posed in the referendum is not actually about marriage equality. Those who wish to change the constitution are looking for a different kind of relationship which would be called ‘marriage’; a relationship which includes some elements of marriage, such as love and commitment, but which of its very nature excludes one of the two essential aspects of marriage, namely the openness of their sexual relationship to procreation,” he said.

Bishop Doran said what is at issue in the referendum is “a radical change in the meaning of marriage which would remove the aspect of openness to procreation in how marriage is defined and understood in our constitution for all of us”.

He said the challenge of the referendum “is not simply how we can defend and protect the status quo” but how to improve it.

“Everybody is welcome in God’s Church. Those who are baptised Catholics have a unique right to participate in the life of the Catholic Church, to pray together, to celebrate together and to serve together,” Bishop Doran said.

“Many people who are of homosexual orientation live faithfully as members of the Church alongside their heterosexual brothers and sisters. Many struggle with the demands of chastity, as do many heterosexual people. That does not change the reality of God’s love for them; nor should it make them any less welcome or less free to participate in the life of the Church.”