Church in threat over weddings’ civil aspects ahead of same-sex marriage vote

The Catholic Church hierarchy here has said it will no longer carry out the civil elements of weddings if marriage is extended to gay couples.

In the event of the proposed marriage equality referendum being passed, the move will affect tens of thousands of heterosexual couples who marry in Catholic churches up and down the country each year.

A senior spokesman for the Irish Catholic Bishops said he believed priests were unlikely to have any issue with the hierarchy’s decision to force all couples marrying in the Church to carry out the civil aspect of their marriage elsewhere.