St David's Children's Society to offer children to gay couples

Local Action: Welsh Catholics should write to Archbishop Smith of Cardiff, who is the Chairman of the Trustees. St David's Children's Society covers Wales. The Board of Trustees is to confirm the decision 'next month'.

Archbishop Peter Smith
Archbishop's House
41/43 Cathedral Road
Cardiff
CF11 9HD

E-mail: arch@rcadc.org

A summary of the state of play with Catholic Adoption agencies in England and Wales (h-t The Tablet, 27/9/08):


Severing links with the Church to continue adoption work:

St David's Children's Society (Welsh dioceses)
Catholic Children's Society (Arundel and Brighton, Southwark, Portsmouth dioceses)
St Francis Children's Society (Northhampton)
The Catholic Children's Society (Nottingham)
Catholic Caring Services (Lancaster)
Nugent Care (Liverpool) ('already offers an adoption assessment service for same-sex couples')

Ceasing adoption work:

Catholic Children's Rescue Society (Salford)

Continuing adoption work under Catholic principles to test the law:

Catholic Children's Society (Westminster)
Catholic Care (Leeds, Hallam, Middlesbrough) ('expected to follow' Westminster's lead)
Fr Hudson's Society (Birmingham) (ditto)

One further scandal noted in the Tablet article is the attitude of Caritas Social Action Network, an organ of the Bishops' Conference, whose Director Phillipa Gitlin suggests that the agencies carrying on with their work under Catholic principles are being irresponsible. "...she warned that attempting to circumvent the law would leave the agencies "hostages to fortune" and risked the possibility of attracting a risky and expensive legal challenge."