Politics
Thursday August 2, 2007
UK Bishop: Couples that Cohabit and Reject Responsibility of Marriage Should Not Receive its Legal Benefits
TODAY'S HEADLINES
E-MAIL
PRINT
By Elizabeth O'Brien
LONDON, United Kingdom, August 2, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Catholic Bishop's Conference of England and Wales (CBCEW) recently issued a statement that said that if cohabiting couples are unwilling to accept the responsibility and commitment of marriage, they should not receive the legal benefits of marriage.
In light of newly proposed UK legislation, the president of the CBCEW's Committee on Marriage and the Family, Bishop John Hine, expressed his "special concern" for a law that "would make cohabitation equivalent to marriage," Catholic News Agency (CNA) reports.
The British Law Commission, a government advisory body, recommended on Tuesday that the government should adopt certain legal safeguards for unmarried couples that broke up after having children and living together for many years.
The Commission declared that the regulations would not give cohabiting couples the equal rights of married couples. Nevertheless, Hine strongly cautioned against the proposed law, recognizing that it would give cohabiting couples "legal recognition, with their corresponding rights and titles."
According to CNA, the CBCEW is concerned over the proposed law - which has to do with "financial consequences" involved in a break-up - because it creates a set of rules for cohabiting couples that is distinct from the rules that govern couples that divorce. In essence, this set ups cohabitation as an alternate and equally valid lifestyle to marriage.
While applauding the proposal's intention to seek the welfare of any children involved, Hine voiced the bishops' concern over the basic justification of the proposed legislation. He explained that the law stipulates a minimum cohabitation time for couples before they can receive legal benefits, thereby giving them a certain legal status.
Cutting to the core of the issue, he affirmed, "Basically, couples that cohabit and deliberately choose not to marry, forgo the responsibilities and obligations of marriage, and (therefore) they should also forgo the legal benefits of marriage. It's very important that the distinction is clearly made."
Hine underlined that it is unacceptable to "make cohabitation equivalent to marriage." He further emphasized the "duty of the state to promote, uphold and safeguard marriage as the basis of family life, the best and most stable environment for bringing up children".
Read related LifeSiteNews coverage:
Cohabitation Ends in Separation 90% of the Time
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/jul/06072106.html
PENNSYLVANIA BISHOPS CITE REASONS AGAINST COHABITATION
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/1999/sep/99091603.html
Unmarried Parents Five Times more Likely to Separate than Married
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/aug/05080201.html
No Right to Adopt for Co-Habiting Northern Irish Couple
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/jun/07060410.html
Listen to the Vatican Radio Report:
http://www.oecumene.radiovaticana.org/en1/Articolo.asp?c=147758
Back to TopLatest Headlines
- Cardinal Rigali: You Can't Claim to be "Reducing Abortions" but Publicly Funding them in D.C.
- General Electric to Use Embryonic Stem Cells for Testing, Phase out Lab Rats
- Ohio Supreme Court Allows Planned Parenthood to Conceal Abortion Records in Sexual Abuse Case
- LifeSiteNews Canada Day and Independence Day Message. Taking a few days off. LSN returns Monday July 6
- Heroically Pro-Life Brazilian Archbishop's Resignation Accepted Under Cloud of Vatican Newspaper Misrepresentation
- Pro-Life Groups Announce New Colorado Personhood Initiative
- Judge Puts Kibosh on DC Gay "Marriage" Referendum
- Al Franken Win Hands Supermajority to Senate Democrats
- Group Funded by Canadian Bishops' D&P Joins with Others to Denounce the "Natural Family" and "Family Rights"
- Financially Troubled Planned Parenthood of El Paso Closes Doors
- Abortion Linked to Subsequent Pre-Term Births, New Research Again Confirms
- New Orleans Homosexual Couple Ask Fed. Court to Overturn Marriage Amendment
- Slim Hope Of New Ontario Progressive Conservative Party Leader Promoting Pro-Life, Pro-Family Issues
- Pope Accepts Resignation of Bishop Caught Involved in Homosexual Encounters
- Young Children Removed from UK Schools for "Inappropriate Sexual Behaviour"
- Northern Ireland Politician Cleared of Wrongdoing after Reiterating Christian Teaching on Homosexual Acts
- UK Conservative Leader Speaks at Gay Pride Fundraiser
- More Letters to the Editor on Canadian Catholic Development and Peace Scandal (July 1)
- Letters to the Editor - Readers Respond to Development and Peace Scandal
- Watch This Dramatic New Video on Catholic Bishops Conference Funding of Pro-Abortion Groups
Most Read this Week
- Homosexual Duke U. Director Charged with Offering Adopted 5-Year-Old for Sex
- Famed Fr. Corapi Calls Canadian Bishops' Dissent from Humanae Vitae "Catastrophic"
- Pope: It is a Childish Faith to Oppose the Church Teaching on Life and Family
- Heroically Pro-Life Brazilian Archbishop's Resignation Accepted Under Cloud of Vatican Newspaper Misrepresentation
- General Electric to Use Embryonic Stem Cells for Testing, Phase Out Lab Rats
- LifeSiteNews Detailed Response to Canadian Bishops' Whitewash Report on Development and Peace
- Young Children Removed from UK Schools for "Inappropriate Sexual Behaviour"
- Is Pro-Choice the New Pro-Life?
- Swedish Parents Won't Tell if Child is Boy or Girl as Gender Experiment
- Cardinal Rigali: You Can't Claim to be "Reducing Abortions" but Publicly Funding them in D.C.
MORE NEWS: 
LifeSiteNews.com Home Page Last 10 Days Archives Special Reports
Copyright © LifeSiteNews.com. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License. You may republish this article or portions of it without request provided the content is not altered and it is clearly attributed to "LifeSiteNews.com". Any website publishing of complete or large portions of original LifeSiteNews articles MUST additionally include a live link to www.LifeSiteNews.com. The link is not required for excerpts. Republishing of articles on LifeSiteNews.com from other sources as noted is subject to the conditions of those sources.