Religious group distributes referendum pamphlets to churches across Ireland

A cross-denominational religious group campaigning for a No vote in the same-sex marriage referendum has distributed 20,000 pamphlets to over 100 churches throughout the country.

The group has also been taking advice from at least one Catholic archbishop and providing pamphlets to more bishops. It has declined to identify the individuals concerned.

An email circulated by campaigner Paddy Monaghan of the Evangelical Cross Denominational Response to the Same-Sex Marriage Referendum outlined the measures it has taken to date.

Mr Monaghan’s group distributed the pamphlet after a steering group decided how it should be presented.

“If 80 per cent of the people who attended church over the weekend voted, and voted No, the referendum would be defeated,” he said last night.

Abusive emails

He also said those campaigning for a No face abuse, adding that he received “abusive emails” after he wrote an opinion piece for

The Irish Times

last month.

Sources in the Catholic Church have said they will focus their efforts on ground-level campaigning and believe they cannot win the argument "over the airwaves".

TDs have also said they have noticed religious groups “mobilising in the background” as the campaign intensifies.

In his email, Mr Monaghan says the steering group changed the front cover of the pamphlet “on advice from a Catholic archbishop – it now reads Same-Sex Marriage”.

The pamphlet has 55 signatories, and Mr Monaghan says another 45 have added their names to his group's cause since the first leaflets were printed. The original signatories include Kevin Doran, the Catholic Bishop of Elphin; Church of Ireland Archdeacon David Huss from Donegal; and Ferran Glenfield, the Church of Ireland Bishop of Kilmore.

“Any attempt to change the meaning of marriage to embrace same-sex unions is an attack on marriage,” it says. “This change would deny the importance our society places on the complementary role of mothers and fathers in raising children. It would undermine one of the foundational institutions of the Irish State.”

Social pressure

“Freedom of conscience regarding religious beliefs is a basic human right. Already there is extraordinary social pressure on people to endorse same-sex marriage and anyone who opposes it is often demonised and labelled as homophobic, bigoted and unloving.

“Service providers such as caterers and photographers would be acting illegally if, on grounds of conscience, they were to decline services for same-sex weddings.”

Mr Monaghan’s email says: “The first 10,000 pamphlets were ordered and sent to some 70 churches and parishes all over Ireland. Another 10,000 pamphlets were printed with the new front cover.

“One Pentecostal church in Athlone ordered 3,000 pamphlets to bring around every house in Athlone – please keep them in your prayers and pray that other churches would take similar initiatives. One Catholic bishop ordered 1,000 pamphlets for priests in his Diocese.” Also advertised is a book “written by a celibate Anglican minister who still battles with same-sex attraction”.