SORs and 'Signposting'

Update: now even The Tablet has agreed on the wrong-headedness of the 'signposting strategy':

'The Church's stand left many questions to be answered. Are homosexual acts a 'grave depravity', as the Vatican says, if within the context of a loving, monogamous relationship? And if so, why are the bishops so apparently relaxed about allowing referrals of such couples to other adoption agencies?'
Hat tip to CFNews and 'Diogenes'

Campaign update: one of the things revealed by the SORs row is that Catholic adoption agencies have the policy of 'signposting', referring gay couples, who they will not help to adopt, to agencies which will give such help. This is not only gravely immoral, but has undermined the Catholic position in opposing the SORs, as reported in a previous post. The immorality of the policy has been pointed out by the three leading members of the Linacre Centre, an official Catholic medical ethics institute. The possibility of an extension of this policy being the basis of a new compromise, is reported by the Telegraph below. The idea would be that the Catholic agencies hand over the selection of adoptive parents to agencies entirely lacking in moral compass. This has already happened in San Francisco, and is an international scandal. If you have not done so, please protest to Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor (enquiries@rcdow.org.uk).


Letter to the Catholic Herald (in part):'Just at it is wrong for GPs--Catholic or not--to refer patients for the purpose of their getting an abortion or pro-abortion consultation, so too the question of complicity arises with referral for same-sex adoption. The pressures to refer are very real, but can referral truly be justified? If adoption by same-sex couples is wrong because it is unjust to the child, it is surely wrong not only to arrange such adoptions but to refer couples to other agencies so that they may arrange the adoptions instead.'
From Helen Watt, Luke Gormally and Anthony McCathy of the Linacre Centre for Healthcare Ethics.

From CFNews: Catholic adoption agencies could team up with non-faith-based organisations to comply with a new ban on discriminating against homosexual couples, Tony Blair suggests. He told MPs it would be a 'tragedy' if Catholic adoption agencies stopped providing their service as a result of the Church's opposition to placing children with same sex couples, but said that Catholic agencies could enter 'consortiums' with other agencies, to provide a 'gateway' into adoption, after the two-year transitional period proposed by the Government. Mr Blair admitted that the issue was difficult', but if people were 'sensible' they could find a way through it.