JOHN SMEATON, DIRECTOR OF SPUC: Congratulations to Archbishop of Westminster for challenging government on same-sex marriage

Saturday, 17 November 2012

Congratulations to Archbishop of Westminster for challenging government on same-sex marriage

According to a Daily Telegraph report this morning, Archbishop Vincent Nichols, the archbishop of Westminster, speaking in London, told George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, not to use marriage as a political football and to publish in full the results of the government consultation on marriage.

The archbishop is speaking this evening at an evening for marriage - defending marriage as the bedrock of society - in St. Monica's Hall, North Finchley.

According to The Daily Telegraph the archbishop has said:

“He is the politician not I – I just think it is too important to be made simply as a political football.

“This is not simply a redefining of marriage to accommodate a few, it is a redefining of marriage for everyone and therefore all marriages, if this bill is introduced, will be different.

“It is a different reality for everybody and that is a very serious matter and one to which we are very strongly opposed and will remain strongly opposed.

“It is a very important building block in society and it is very foolish to alter that when as far as we can see there is not a specific identified problem that that change is supposed to be addressing ...

“ ... My own sense is that many people feel deeply uneasy about this move, it was not in any election manifesto, it has not in that sense been put to the country.
“That is why the strength of opinion expressed in the consultation ought not to be hidden and that’s why we want the full disclosure of the results of that consultation.”

According to The Daily Telegraph report, at their meeting this week, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference agreed a resolution insisting the results of the Government’s consultation on same-sex marriage be published in full.

I congratulate Archbishop Nichols. Not only Catholics but citizens throughout Britain will be greatly encouraged that the archbishop of Westminster is challenging the government in this way. Upholding marriage is in everyone's interests, including people with no religious faith. Marriage - the permanent, exclusive union of one man and one woman - is the basis of the family, the fundamental group unit of society.

Last November, SPUC's national council launched a campaign against the Westminster government's proposals for same-sex marriage. Marriage as an institution protects children, both born and unborn. Statistics show that unborn children are much safer within marriage than outside marriage. For more information see SPUC's position paper and background paper on same-sex marriage. Please do everything you can to support SPUC's Britain-wide lobby of Members of Parliament on marriage.

Comments on this blog? Email them to johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk

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About Me

I became involved in SPUC after graduating, when I established a branch in south London in 1974. I have worked full-time for SPUC for 42 years. I became chief executive of SPUC in the UK in 1996, having been general secretary since 1978. I was elected vice-president of International Right to Life Federation in 2005. At UN conferences in Cairo, Copenhagen, Beijing, Istanbul and Rome, I helped coordinate more than 150 pro-life/pro-family groups resulting in pro-life victories in Cairo, Istanbul and Rome. I was educated at Salesian College, London, before going to Oxford where I graduated in English Language and Literature. I qualified as a teacher, becoming head of English at a secondary school. I am married to Josephine. We have a grown-up family and we live in north London.