Scottish Catholic Observer

The Scottish Parliament has said it will look at a petition against legalising same-sex ‘marriage’ after the Government has published its consultation on the issue.

Holyrood’s Public Petitions Committee considered the petition yesterday—which urges the Scottish Government to make no changes to ‘the current definition of marriage, as being a union between one man and one woman’—and has said it will ‘await proper feedback’ from the Scottish Government.

The Government launched its consultation last year seeking a range of views on whether or not marriage should be redefined to include same-sex couples, a proposal vehemently opposed by the Catholic Church in Scotland. The closing date for submissions was December 9 and the Catholic Church and the Scotland for Marriage campaign—which included the Church and Care for Scotland among others—were active and firm in their opposition to redefining marriage.

The petitioner, Amy King, criticised the Scottish Social Attitudes (SSA) survey, which found that 61 per cent of Scottish people support same-sex ‘marriage,’ arguing that it ‘was loaded in favour of that outcome’ and had been ‘freely used by homosexual activists and the media as justification to introduce same-sex ‘marriage.’’

Ms King added that a report entitled: Civil Partnerships Five Years On, which was published in September last year, showed that less than 50 per cent of the Scottish public support same-sex ‘marriage.’

David Stewart, convener of the Public Petitions Committee, said it is ‘undoubtedly an extremely important issue and clearly the Scottish Government has done a comprehensive consultation.’

“I would stress that in no sense are we putting this on the backburner, what is important is that we await proper feedback from the Scottish Government,” Mr Stewart said.

Committee members agreed to write to the Government to alert it to the petition and ask to receive the responses to its consultation before proceeding further.