behind Cardinal Seán Brady's call for the Government not to weaken marriage. 
Speaking last weekend in Limerick, Dr Brady warned that the Government's proposed legislation to grant civil unions to same-sex couples would greatly change people's concept of the family and undermine the institution of marriage.
A spokesman for the Church of Ireland said: ''The Church of Ireland has made it clear that marriage, which for us is a union between a man and a woman, must continue to be protected as it currently is under the Irish Constitution.
''Any arrangements made by the State to accommodate the needs of other partnerships must not be considered a marriage or to be in any way equal to marriage,'' he added.
However, Changing Attitude, a gay lobby group within the Church of Ireland, distanced itself from the Church's position. Referring to the situation in the North, Rev. Mervyn Kingston of Changing Attitude insisted that the legislation has been available in the cardinal's own diocese of Armagh and ''the sky has not fallen in''.
The Civil Partnership Bill (2009) is due to be debated in the Oireachtas in the autumn.
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