Cohabiting couples should not receive Holy Communion, the bishops said in a statement yesterday.

The bishops said the Church does not impose this sanction as a punishment, but because "the way of life" of such people violated the sacrament of marriage.

The Church would continue to offer such couples spiritual help and encouraged them to go to Mass, Archbishop Paul Cremona and Gozo Bishop Mario Grech said.

"However, the Catholic Church insists that couples who live together without being married should not receive Holy Communion," they said.

The statement was released in the wake of comments made by Fr George Dalli who said he was prepared to administer the sacra-ment of the Holy Communion to cohabiting couples.

The bishops said the behaviour of cohabiting couples went against the teachings of the Church, which preached that those who received the Eucharist had to be one in unity with Christ and the Church. The Church set up by Christ had to be a faithful witness of such teaching through its members, the bishops said.

They added that some people were paying a high price to remain in communion with the Church despite having suffered marriage breakdown, and they had stayed away from a relationship with another person outside marriage.

Therefore, separated people who were not in a relationship with someone else could still receive Holy Communion.

The bishops said they were urging couples who were cohabiting to look at the teachings of the Church, renew their confidence in God's mercy, and seek conversion.