A senior Roman Catholic church leader in France has opposed same sex weddings, saying only heterosexual couples could provide children with the necessary sense of filial security and embody the renewal of generations.
Noel Mamere, a Green politician, has said he will conduct the first same sex marriage on June 5th in France - a traditionally Catholic country with a secular state - by uniting two men in the Bordeaux suburb of which he is mayor.
Weddings in France must be carried out by a local mayor to be legally valid, and Justice Minister Dominique Perben said last month any such ceremony would be null and void and that Mamere risked punishment if he went ahead with the wedding.
In a commentary published yesterday by the La Croix newspaper, Archbishop Jean-Pierre Ricard of Bordeaux said that while the church preached respect towards homosexuals, it opposed gay weddings.
The church opposed gay weddings, he wrote, "because marriage also ensures the renewal of generations, the clarity of filial and parental ties and provides security to the adults and the children who are the fruit of that union, which is not the case of unions between people of the same sex.
"A child born of the union of a man and a woman needs a father and a mother. In order to structure his own personality, he needs the model of a father and a mother," he wrote.
Ricard added that the well-being of children was more important than the desire of adults to become parents. The church also regarded heterosexual marriage as one of the foundations of society.
Ricard's article, first published by his diocesan magazine, marks the first time a senior Catholic churchman has spoken out publicly against gay weddings since Mamere came out in favour of same sex matrimony.
Earlier this month, two prominent socialists urged their party to reconsider its new-found enthusiasm for gay marriage, saying the issue was too serious and far-reaching to be rushed.
A recent poll suggested 64 per cent of French people approve of gay marriage, although President Jacques Chirac's governing conservatives oppose it.