A Catholic bishop has said he hopes that the ruling of the Supreme Court in favour of heterosexual civil partnerships “will not deter people from the sacred commitment of marriage”.
The Supreme Court on June 27 ruled in favour of a heterosexual couple who claimed the right to a civil partnership instead of a marriage. The ruling explained: “The interests of the community in denying those different-sex couples who have a genuine objection to being married the opportunity to enter into a civil partnership are unspecified and not easy to envisage.” The judges argued that preventing opposite-sex couples to have civil partnerships was incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights.
Bishop Peter Doyle of Northampton, Catholic Bishop for Marriage and Family Life, commented: “Marriage is a response in love ultimately founded in the call of God who is love. Couples enter the bond of marriage as equal partners, mutually and freely giving and receiving each other.”
He added: “God blesses the marriage bond only when the couple freely and without conditions exchange their consent. We hope that today’s ruling does not deter people from that sacred and life-long commitment.”
As Ms Steinfeld and Mr Keidan (the couple who appealed) state, the commitment between man and woman is also to raise children in a nurturing and fruitful environment, in which the shared parental role is extremely important. We must recognise that family is the building block of a good and strong society."
The appeal was brought by London academics Rebecca Steinfeld, 37, and Charles Keidan, 41, on the grounds that they had "deep-rooted and genuine ideological objections to marriage" because it was "historically heteronormative and patriarchal". The couple said they had a problem with the "legacy of marriage" which "treated women as property for centuries".
Civil partnerships were approved in 2004 to grant same-sex couples the same rights as marriage, such as tax allowances and the right to share assets when the union is dissolved, regardless of whose name they are in. Since 2014, British same-sex couples have been able to get married, but heterosexual couples still are not allowed to form civil partnerships.
The court ruling will pressure the government to legislate on this matter. Speaking outside the court Mr Keidan said there was now only one option – "to extend civil partnerships to all". He said they hoped the Government will "act with urgency" for the sake of thousands of couples across the country.
Speaking in the House of Commons Conservative former minister Tim Loughton also urged the Government to "resolve this illegal inequality and extend civil partnerships to everyone". He already proposed a private members' bill which would broaden the availability of the partnerships.
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