From CFNews: New homosexual 'rights' laws that threaten the closure of more than a dozen Catholic adoption agencies could face a court challenge from a group of lawyers who claim the regulations arc illegal. The Thomas More Centre, a charity set up by Catholic and Anglican lay people, maintains that while there is a wealth of evidence to show that children flourish in families built around a married mother and father, there is none to show that they would equally prosper in the care of gay couples.
The Centre hopes to bring a test case against the Government to reverse the law introduced in April under the Equality Act 2006. Liverpool-based barrister Neil Addison, a founder member, said: If a Catholic adoption agency wanted to continue as it is and say that its policies were in the best interests of the child we would be willing, if we could get the financial backing, to support it in a test case. We think that if you pursue a case to court quite often the decision is not as bad as the original Government policy. There are lots of adoption agencies. Why should they not be able to make their own decisions about what is the best interests of the child? Why is the Government imposing a monolithic view that they must abide by nothing more than an experiment? What is being done in the name of nondiscrimination is actually interfering with people's freedom of choice. We have to understand that freedom of choice is important if we are to develop as a society. To be blunt about it. I drink that diversity officials are the fascists of our age. Political correctness is a new form of fascism and it's imposing a world view on people:'
Catholic agencies in the dioceses of Nottingham, Northampton and Cardiff are currently looking at the possibility of becoming secular charities so that they can carry on their adoption work. But in July one agency -- the Leeds- based Catholic Care -- voted to pull out of adoption altogether, ending a service which places some 20 children with new families each year. Bishop Patrick O'Donoghue of Lancaster also announced in the summer that the Catholic Caring Services, an adoption agency which places children with new families in Lancashire and Cumbria, will probably follow suit rather than abide by the Sexual Orientation Regulations.
This week the bishop said that he would give the Thomas More Centre his full support. 'I think test cases ought to be brought. There should be a test case' He said that the paramountcy principle - which holds that the best interests of the child must be the overriding concern - should apply to a child's right to have a married mother and father. 'I think what legislators are doing is trying to make gay relationships equivalent to marriage,' he said. It emerged lass week that the Government is struggling to fund new homes for many of the 4,000 children in care. Official figures have revealed a 13 percent fall in the number of children adopted, in spite of a target to increase adoptions by 50 per cent.
1 comment:
I hope the test case comes up and the `right to conscience` so despicably cast aside by this Government will remain alive in this country. On adoption I have been corresponding with an American Family. Yes, the mother and father had three children but they thought it would be a christian thing to do to adopt a child. The usual way of thinking, well in my experience, is that adoption is only for those who cannot have children. I am beginning to believe that adopted chldren brought into a home where there are already sibling loved abnd cared for gain so much. So if some couple is thinking of having another baby perhaps they should think of these children.
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