"Irish Bishops Sell Out Marriage For Money"

churchmilitant.com

"Irish bishops caved to pressure to provide marriage services to same-sex couples in exchange for millions of Euros in government funding.

The Times reported Wednesday that the Catholic Church's marriage services organization, ACCORD Catholic Marriage Care Service, signed a new agreement with the Irish government's Child and Family Agency, Tusla, that requires them to provide marriage preparation and counseling to same-sex couples in exchange for €1.4 million.

A Tusla spokeswoman told The Times that ACCORD 'has assured Tusla they will provide counseling services regardless of sexual orientation and comply with the agreement.' She added that they will be monitoring ACCORD's service providers 'to ensure they comply with the terms of their service level agreement,' further threatening to end the contract and withdraw funding if any discrimination is found.

Earlier in the year, Tusla threatened to yank all public funding from ACCORD unless it accepts same-sex couples for services.

Tusla created a new agreement for 2018 requiring that all funded groups not discriminate against people on a number of issues, including sexual orientation. A spokeswoman for Tusla said the group advocated for the anti-discrimination requirement 'to ensure that service providers who receive public money to deliver services abide by Ireland's equality legislation.'...

Gay rights groups also praised Tusla's policy change. New Ways Ministry, a pro-gay group that claims to be Catholic, was among them. Francis DeBernardo, the executive director of New Ways Ministry, wrote, 'I am confident that plenty of the heterosexual couples who seek service from ACCORD are not living up to the church's [sic] teaching in all areas, including with regard to sexuality, yet they are not being denied service.'"