The Catholic Church has reaffirmed its opposition to Government proposals to give unmarried cohabiting couples similar legal rights to married people. Earlier this week, the Church of England came out in support of the proposals saying it was "sympathetic" to a change in the law for cohabiting couples where there were children involved.

The Church of England also supported in its response to recommendations from the Law Commission more limited legal reform for unmarried couples in cases not involving children but where there was a risk of "manifest injustice".

The Rt Rev Tom Butler, Bishop of Southwark, said: "It is perfectly justified in terms of public policy for marriage to continue to confer particular benefits and privileges not available to those who choose not to commit to an enduring legal relationship, so long as adequate steps are taken to prevent manifest injustice.

"The test we would commend in assessing possible solutions is whether they will genuinely correct injustices without at the same time downgrading or creating disincentives to marriage."

The Catholic Bishops of England and Wales have taken a different line on the issue, however, urging Government advisers to discard proposals saying that they send out a "powerful signal that the state had no interest in the institution of marriage," reports Catholic newspaper The Universal.

The bishops said the proposals posed a "grave risk" to marriage, and the Government should take steps instead to support marriage.

"A man and a woman who are simply cohabiting have the very clear option to marry and consequently enjoy the benefits of being married," the bishops said in a September statement to the Law Commission.

"The gradual erosion of tax and benefits has already led to a downgrading of the institution of marriage, and to provide the existing and fewer financial and testamentary benefits ... to those living outside a marital relationship would undoubtedly lead to a further undermining of the institution of marriage.

"It would inevitably lead to the question, 'Why marry at all?'"

Chairman of the Catholic Bishops' Conference's Committee for Family Life and Marriage, Bishop John Hine, added: "There has been a consultation process and we submitted our views to the Law Commission and they are now in the public domain for everyone to see."

Bishop Hine did add, however, that the Catholic and the Anglican Churches both had the welfare of the people involved in relationship break-ups as well as a determination to uphold the value of marriage.

He added that both the Catholic and Anglican Churches were both conscious of trying to keep a balance between these principles, but added, "The Anglican Church has come down slightly more on one end and we have come down slightly more on the other."

Also this week, Harry Benson, who advises the Tory social justice commission, also urged the Church of England to take a firm stand against legal rights for cohabiting couples, warning that the break-up rate was much higher among unmarried parents and children were the losers.

"The Church should stick to its guns and promote marriage and strengthen and encourage it," he told Radio 4's Today programme. "If we start increasing the protection for cohabiting families we need to take into account that we may be increasing the problem, building up more family instability, more family break up, in the long term."