The Catholic church is on a collision course with the government
after declaring it will oppose in the "strongest terms" changes to the
Equality Act that will allow gay couples to register civil partnerships in places of worship.
A
statement from the archbishop of Southwark, the Most Rev Peter Smith,
said it was neither "necessary nor desirable" to allow gays and lesbians
to have civil partnership ceremonies in religious premises and accused
the government of "considering a fundamental change to the status of
marriage".
Churches and Christian groups have criticised the Home
Office decision, announced last week, to lift the bar on civil
partnership ceremonies being held in places of worship.
The equalities
minister, Lynne Featherstone,
has come under fire for disclosing the government's intention to
consult over how marriage laws in England and Wales can be reformed
further.
The home secretary, Theresa May, said the rule changes
would not be mandatory: "No religious group will be forced to host a
civil partnership registration, but for those who wish to do so this is
an important step forward."
But Smith said the change was something "never envisaged by the Equality Act or any other legislation passed by parliament".
The
archbishop added: "Marriage does not belong to the state any more than
it belongs to the church. It is a fundamental human institution rooted
in human nature itself. It is a lifelong commitment of a man and a woman
to each other, publicly entered into, for their mutual wellbeing and
for the procreation and upbringing of children."
There was also
implicit criticism of those religions and movements supporting the
change – Quakers, Unitarians and Liberal Jews have welcomed the
government's modernising agenda.
Smith said: "No authority – civil or religious – has the power to modify the fundamental nature of marriage.
"The
Equality Act was amended to permit civil partnerships on religious
premises, which unhelpfully blurs the distinction previously upheld by
parliament and the courts between marriage and civil partnerships.
"A
consenting minister is perfectly free to hold a religious ceremony
either before or after a civil partnership. That is a matter of
religious freedom, but it requires no legislation by the state. We do
not believe it is either necessary or desirable to allow the
registration of civil partnerships on religious premises. These will not
take place in Catholic churches."
The Catholic bishops of England and Wales have had mixed success when they have lobbied government in the past.
In
2006 they succeeded in persuading the then education secretary, Alan
Johnson, to scrap plans for quotas in faith schools, but failed to
persuade the Labour government in 2007 that Catholic adoption agencies
should be exempt from sexual orientation regulations, which would have
led them to consider gay couples as prospective parents.
The
Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement, a UK-based international and
non-denominational charity campaigning for an inclusive church, welcomed
Featherstone's announcement.
Its chief executive, the Rev Sharon
Ferguson, said: "We are of course delighted by this development which
has been a long time coming. We reject concerns by some that this is an
infringement upon religious liberty. No religious group, Christian or
otherwise, will be forced to conduct civil partnerships. But the current
situation is an infringement upon the religious liberty of those faith
groups who are happy and indeed keen to conduct such civil partnership
ceremonies."