The Bishop of Elphin, Dr Christopher Jones has said that people who live together rather than get married are bringing children into an unstable environment. The outspoken bishop also criticised the growing pressure for legislation for gay marriage, which was recently endorsed by Tánaiste Eamonn Gilmore.
He said he deplored fact that in recent times lobbyists and some politicians were, “seeking to have the union of two men or two women defined as marriage.”
People who live together and have children were bringing them into an, "unstable environment," where the couple is, “unwilling to commit themselves to marriage,” he declared.
Dr Jones made the controversial remarks at an address to people who gathered for a marriage jubilee celebration in Saints Peter and Paul's Church in Athlone, at which hundreds of people, including a large number of married couples from all over the area and their families, were in attendance.
In his homily, he stressed the importance of marriage and family for the health of the couple themselves, for their children and ultimately, and for the citizens of society in general.
Dr Jones, who is president of the Catholic marriage service ACCORD, called on young people to rediscover the significance and sacredness of marriage for themselves and their children, and not to, "trivialise the institution," by living together outside of marriage.
Cohabitation, he said, undermines, “the unity, the indissolubility and the sacramental character,” of Christian marriage.