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Monday, April 23, 2012

British churches would be required to solemnize same-sex unions, legal expert warns RSS Facebook April 23, 2012

A Catholic legal expert has warned that if Great Britain recognizes same-sex marriages, churches will be compelled to solemnize such unions, regardless of the assurances that have been given by Prime Minister David Cameron.

Neil Addison of the Thomas More Legal Centre said that European court rulings show that the government would be required give homosexual couples all the same legal rights as heterosexual couples, including the right to a religious service. "The government will be obliged to permit same-sex marriage on religious premises on exactly the same basis as it permits heterosexual marriage," he concluded.

Addison insisted that a proposed legal exception, allowing religious bodies to refuse to perform same-sex marriages, would not stand a challenge in the European Court of Human Rights.


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