The Catholic Church of Sweden says no to the bill of law that the Government plans to submit to Parliament in 2008 and that would introduce a "sexually neutral marriage", whereby marriage and "partnership" would be covered by the same legislation. In a note from the Catholic diocese of Stockholm, the bishop Anders Arborelius recalls that, for the Catholic Church, marriage is "a relation between a man and a woman only". "We cannot accept explains the bishop that cohabitation should be blessed in a liturgical manner. Theologically, it is inadmissible for us". And he adds: "Marriage is one of the seven sacraments of the Catholic Church and must fulfil some given requirements to be approved. One such requirement is that marriage must be voluntarily established by both parties and the couple must be aware that the sexual union is conditional, by its very nature, on the procreation of children". Since 1995, Sweden has acknowledged gay couples, giving them the same rights as marriage. But the current legislation, which came into force in 1987, defines as marriage the union between a man and a woman. The new legislation that the government is developing means to repeal any reference to sex.
