British archbishop opposes law that gives gay couples benefits

Published: 2005-12-07

LONDON (CNS) -- A Catholic archbishop denounced a new law giving British homosexual couples the same benefits as married heterosexuals. Archbishop Peter Smith of Cardiff, Wales, said that the Civil Partnerships Act, which became law Dec. 5, legalized "same-sex marriage in all but name." The archbishop, chairman of the English and Welsh bishops' Department for Christian Responsibility and Citizenship, said it created a "real danger that the deeply rooted understanding of marriage as a permanent and exclusive relationship between a woman and a man, and as the best context for raising children, will be eroded." The government needs to "support and promote marriage rather than undermine it," he said in a statement Dec. 6. He said the new law was "not based on natural complementarities of male and female, and the natural purpose of sexual union cannot be achieved by same-sex partnerships, nor can a same-sex couple cooperate with God to create new life."

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