Catholic Church admits it won’t boycott straight weddings, despite threats
The Catholic Church in Ireland has admitted it will not stop performing legally-recognised weddings, despite threatening to over same-sex marriage.
In the run-up to the country’s referendum on same-sex marriage in May, the powerful Chuch had threatened to boycott legal marriages altogether in case of a ‘yes’ vote.
Bishops had claimed that changing the definition of marriage would result in priests being barred from conducting the civil parts of ceremonies – even for straight couples.
However, following the landslide victory for equality, the Church has quietly admitted that it actually has no plans whatsoever to stop priests from marrying straight couples.
According to the Irish Independent, Archbishop Eamon Martin conceded: “As far as I can see, the church would indeed like to continue solemnising marriages.
“We recognise that a lot of couples who come to our churches for marriage want to have that recognised also as a civil marriage and we’re very appreciative of that.
“We understand that the Minister said today the legislation is being drafted.
“Of course we’ll take a look at that and we’ll monitor the situation to see if it’s possible for us to continue, and I’m hopeful that it will be possible.”
It comes in stark contrast to the Church’s threats before the referendum, when it claimed it would be impossible for weddings to continue unchanged.
Church spokesman Martin Long had claimed in April: “If the referendum is passed, the church’s view and the State’s view of marriage will be radically different. It’s reasonable that the bishops may decide to separate the two.”
However, Archbishop Eamon Martin now denies that the Church made any “threat” on the issue – and blames the media for claiming they did.
