Cathal BarryThe leader of the Knights of St Columbanus has warned that the proposal to amend Article 41 of the Constitution is “an unjust attack on the family founded on marriage”.
Supreme Knight Barry MacMahon said the proposals laid down in the Government’s Children and Family Relationships Bill “depart radically from the natural moral law” and “serve to gravely undermine the common good”.
In a statement, Mr McMahon said the provisions relating to adoption, cohabitation and Donor Assisted Human Reproduction (DAHR) “respectively subvert a child’s right to a married mother and father; the sanctity of marriage; and the dignity of human procreation”.
“Extending joint adoption rights to unmarried persons of the same or opposite sex is indicative of a society that places no unique value on a child being raised by a man and woman bound in the public commitment of marriage. Moreover, it inaugurates an official State indifferentism to the question of whether a child ought to be raised at all by a mother and father together,” he said.
Turning his attention to the same-sex marriage referendum next month, Mr McMahon warned the effect of approving the referendum proposal “will not be to equalise marriage or extend it to others”.
“The result of adopting the amended wording will be to effectively negate the true meaning of marriage and enshrine an entirely novel definition that has no coherent rationale,” he claimed.
“Approving the Government’s proposals will cement the view that Irish society has no particular interest in the promotion and protection of a stable institution featuring a man and woman that can welcome and raise new generations of citizens. It will also signal that a child has no inherent right to be born and raised in such a setting,” he added.