Briefing.
From CFNews: Catholic adoption societies which refuse to offer children to homosexual couples face closure following a tribunal ruling.
Judges ruled in a test case that the charities, which find homes for hundreds of children each year, will be breaking the law if they refuse to accept same-sex couples as adoptive parents.
The ruling means some Catholic agencies face a choice between abandoning their adoption services or their religious principles.
The ruling means some Catholic agencies face a choice between abandoning their adoption services or their religious principles.
One diocese has already said it is likely to close its adoption charities.
Some of the long-standing charities have not opposed adoption by same-sex couples since Labour's 2007 Sexual Orientation Regulations stated that no organisation or company may discriminate against gays.
But yesterday's appeal ruling by the Charity Tribunal confirmed that those which have stuck to Catholic teaching must now do the same or give up trying to get children adopted.
In its appeal, the Catholic Care charity, run by the diocese of Leeds, said that the right to discriminate against homosexual couples was 'a principle of a Catholic organisation'.
But following the ruling a spokesman for the diocese said: 'As the charities cannot provide unrestricted services without being in breach of their obligations to act in accordance with the tenets of the Roman Catholic Church, it seems likely that the charities will need to close their adoption services and a flagship service of the charities will be lost.
'We are concerned about the possible impact this will have on potential adoptive parents and children.'
Tribunal president Alison McKenna ruled that the Catholic Care charity was 'a well-respected voluntary adoption agency which has made a significant contribution to the provision of adoption services in this country and facilitated many successful adoption placements'.
But she and two colleagues said the charity's activities would be unlawful if it went on refusing to accept gay adoptive parents.
Other Catholic adoption agencies declined to comment. [MailOnline]
The news that the Catholic Adoption Agencies had lost their case before the Charity Tribunal 'is sad but was certainly not unexpected, at least as far as I was concerned, writes barrister Neil Addison in his 'Religion Law Blog'.
'What the agencies were trying to do was to change their objects so as to add the following
"The Charity shall only provide adoption services to heterosexuals and such services to heterosexuals shall only be provided in accordance with the tenets of the Church. For the avoidance of doubt the Roman Catholic Bishop of Leeds from time to time shall be the arbiter of whether such services and the manner of their provision fall within the tenets of the Church"
They argued that this would enable them to operate because of the exemption for Charities under Reg 18 of the Sexual Orientation Regulations 2007which say
"18.-(1) Nothing in these Regulations shall make it unlawful for a person to provide benefits only to persons of a particular sexual orientation, if-(a) he acts in pursuance of a charitable instrument, and (b) the restriction of benefits to persons of that sexual orientation is imposed by reason of or on the grounds of the provisions of the charitable instrument"
From a legal point of view the Tribunals decision seems to me to be very questionable, the Tribunal said (para 21)
"regulation 18 could not be relied upon by the Appellant to permit activity which was no longer permitted, or which was made unlawful, by another regulation. As the Preliminary Ruling made clear, this was because the Tribunal understood regulation 18 to permit discrimination by charities only when their activities did not stray into the areas covered by the other regulations"
Frankly that is a legally fatuous remark and completely circular reasoning since if reg 18 only applies to activities which are not covered by the SOR's anyway then why would any Charity need to rely on reg 18 at all ? Before the comments section of this Blog gets overload I should add at this point that reg 18 is not some sinister " legal loophole" in the SOR's designed by cunning homophobes, it is the standard type of exemption given to Charities in every other area of Discrimination legislation so as to permit Charities(and we are only talking about Charities) to offer specific services to Women/Specific Races/Specific Nationalities/People with specific disabilities etc. If the Charity Tribunal decision stands unchallenged then every other Charity is now subject to every other type of Anti-Discrimination legislation and, incidentally, the commission decision makes it more difficult for there to be specific Charities providing services for Gay and Lesbian people.
However the irony is that even had the Catholic Charities won their case before the Tribunal it would have been a pyrrhic victory. As the Tribunal pointed out local authorities would refuse to deal with an Adoption Agency which was clearly and directly discriminatory in its objects and the Agency in that situation would have had no way to challenge such a refusal by a local authority.
Leaving aside the fact that the potential views of local authorities should have been irrelevant to the decision the Tribunal was supposed to be making which was whether the proposed change in objects was legal or not; the Tribunal was undoubtedly correct in their analysis. That is why I, as Director of the Thomas More Legal Centre have been advising Adoption Agencies for a year that they should amend their objects to read as follows
"The Charity shall not have power to engage in any activity which it knows, or reasonably believes, is contrary to the teaching of the Catholic Church; the formal opinion of the Bishop of [ ] shall be final in any question as to what is the teaching of the Catholic Church"
Such a provision in the objects of the Charity would, of course, have prevented them choosing either same sex, or unmarried heterosexual couples, as adoptive parents and they would have had to concentrate on married couples who according to the teachings of the Church (and millenia of human experience) are the appropriate unit to raise and nurture children. Had a local authority then refused to deal with one of the Catholic Agencies then the local authority would itself have been acting illegally by engaging in Religious Discrimination. Why none of the Catholic Agencies even tried this route I do not know. It certainly could not have been any more unsuccessful than the route they did choose. [http://religionlaw.blogspot.com/2009/06/catholic-adoption-agencies-lose-case.html ]
Friday, June 05, 2009
Final defeat of Catholic adoption agencies
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Children adopted by homosexual couples more likely to be bullied
Comment: this is pretty obvious, but the important point here is that the Scottish Executive has tried to suppress this report about the effects on children of homosexual children, and appear determined to ignore children's needs.
However, same-sex parents are likely to turn a blind eye for fear of being blamed, according to the review of eight studies into gay adoption which ministers have now released under a freedom of information request.
Critics of gay adoption say the Government should have conducted more research into its effect on children before deciding to allow it in Scotland in 2006.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Opponents of gay adopted 'retarded'
Briefing. This has caused a storm. The Mail points out that the BAAF, which made the remark, are so concerned to avoid sending black children to white homes, or working class children to middle class homes, that they are placing fewer and fewer children with anyone. But the interests of the child are cast to the winds when it comes to homosexuals: as far as gay couples are concerned adoption is a service to which they have a right.
The 'retarded homophobe' attack was published in a BAAF guide to adoption for homosexual couples.
It was repeated in its newspaper Be My Parent, which advertises children who need homes. Would-be gay adopters were told: 'Most importantly, don't worry about society. Children need good parents much more than retarded homophobes need an excuse to whinge, so don't let your worries about society's reaction hinder your desire and ability to give a child a loving caring home.'
Saturday, May 09, 2009
Leeds adoption agency pursues appeal against SORs
Briefing. The Leeds agency is now the only English one pursuing this route.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Another homosexual adoption scandal
Briefing.
From CHNews: The mother and family of two little boys have launched a bid to keep them from being adopted by a homosexual couple. The boys' grandfather says the adoption would go against the 'family's Christian values'.
The boys, aged nine and six, were taken away from their mother after she allowed them to have contact with their father, her estranged husband, who had physically abused her. Despite the mother's parents and married brother each offering a home to the boys, social workers advertised them in an internet adoption magazine and decided that a homosexual couple should adopt them.
Their mother has told a family court in Somerset that a homosexual household is not a suitable environment for her sons.
She told one newspaper: 'I would love to look after the boys myself and think I am quite capable, especially with the support of my family.
'I was dismayed to find they are going to a single-sex couple. Social workers just dumped the truth on me. I was called to their office about the adoption procedures, and they said the boys' new parents would be a single-sex couple.'
The mother's brother says he has discussed the matter with homosexual friends, who have also raised concerns.
'They asked about the long-term future of the couple who want to adopt my nephews. Will they stay together? Are they in a civil partnership? What happens to the children if they split up?'
Critics of gay adoption have questioned the stability of same-sex relationships, particularly given the fact that many children placed for adoption have already experienced significant family disruption.
Government figures show that none of the 20 male couples in England who adopted children in the year up to March 2008 had registered their relationship as a civil partnership.
The boys' grandfather, a sports coach in his sixties, said: 'The boys thought they were getting a new mummy and daddy, not a daddy and daddy. We are not homophobic, but we feel strongly this adoption is against our family's Christian values.'
Their grandmother added: 'Our grandsons are being forcibly taken from a family who want them dearly. We are worried they will be indoctrinated into a different lifestyle. This is social engineering by the state.'
Somerset County Council say they cannot comment on individual cases.
The case is similar to one which emerged earlier this year of an Edinburgh couple who were told they would never see their grandchildren again unless they dropped their opposition to the children being adopted by a gay couple.
The grandparents had been turned down as adoptive parents themselves because, at 46 and 59, they were told they were too old. [Christian Institute}
Monday, March 16, 2009
Scottish Executive conceals official report on homosexual adoption
Briefing.
The Christian Institute reports that although Scottish ministers launched an investigation last month into the results of the homosexual adoption law, the government will not release the report, saying it is only intended for use 'in house.'
The Christian Institute's Mike Judge said, 'We all deserve to know the outcome and the fact it is not being published will raise concern that ministers know their findings may alarm the public.'
Cardinal Keith O'Brien, the Catholic archbishop of Edinburgh, has issued a statement asking ministers not to extend fostering to homosexuals, but instead to encourage couples in natural marriages to foster children. The government's proposal to extend the right to foster to same-sex partners is 'as misguided and inappropriate as the previous change to allow same sex adoption' he said. The cardinal's statement cited a government consultation in 2006 that found that 80 percent of respondents were opposed to the change.
'I urge the Scottish Government not to jeopardise the welfare of children who need foster care in a similar way,' Cardinal O'Brien said.
The bias of British officials in favour of homosexuals in adoption and fostering was revealed in 2007 after two homosexual men were sentenced to five years in prison for sexually abusing the boys placed in their care. After Ian Wathey, 41, and Craig Faunch, 32, were convicted of sexually molesting 4 foster boys, the council officials who had placed the boys admitted that there had been reservations, but the two men were regarded as 'trophy carers' because of their status as homosexuals.
An independent panel was told by Wakefield Metropolitan District Council officials that 'the fear of being discriminatory' led them to 'fail to discriminate between the appropriate and the abusive.' In a period of several years Wathey and Faunch took in a total of 19 boys.
At the same time, however, a series of media reports have revealed that local council authorities in Britain are refusing to allow Christians to adopt or foster needy children, because of their traditional views on moral matters.
[LSN]
Friday, March 06, 2009
Blairs deny the faith
Comment: as if we needed to know any more about their views, both parts of this gruesome twosome have publicly declared their opposition to the Church's infallible teaching: Tony on homosexuality, Cherie on contraception. H-T John Smeaton.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Lancaster adoption agency cuts ties with Church
Briefing.
Jim Cullen, chief executive of the charity, which has renamed itself Caritas Care, said comments by Bishop of Lancaster Patrick O'Donoghue about same-sex adoption was 'a significant drive' behind the changes.
The Bishop said it would be 'unthinkable, indeed heart-breaking' for the agency to agree to new equality laws which came in last month, meaning it must treat gay and lesbian couples the same as heterosexual couples when it comes to finding homes for children.
Mr Cullen said: 'Bishop Patrick did say if we did comply with the law, we would not be able to call ourselves Catholic.
'We are still a Catholic charity in as much as everything we do is still driven by the teachings of the church, but we no longer receive support from the Diocese, in the sense it no longer provides any funding.
'We would have had collections to support us financially from the Diocese and receive other guidance from it, but that has now stopped.'
Bishop O'Donoghue stepped down from the charity's board of trustees at the end of last year.
Mr Cullen said the charity, which is based in Tulketh Road in Ashton, Preston, would feel the hit of losing the financial support as trust funds and councils which support it also feel the squeeze of the recession.
He said that it had not yet felt the impact of the downturn on councils it works for, but expected to in the near future.
The chief executive said: 'If these things conspire against us it will be very difficult. We will need to more than ever be tight and in control of our resources.'
Bishop O'Donoghue has declined to comment but in an open letter to the charity's trustees last October he urged them not to 'capitulate' to the changes in the law.
He said: 'I remain convinced the best interests of children are served when they live with and are brought up by a married couple.' [Lancashire Evening Post]
Sunday, February 01, 2009
Gays, not Grandparents, to care for children
Comment: Melanie Philips is right. These children are being sacrificed for dogma. As of now, there is no presumption in favour of normal family life in the UK.
The case in Edinburgh reported today, where precisely this grotesque development has occurred, illustrates the sickening way in which what started out as a decent attempt to be tolerant towards a minority lifestyle has turned into a totalitarian assault upon family life and human rights.
Friday, January 09, 2009
Adoption agencies latest
Briefing.
From CFNews: Half of the Catholic adoption agencies that the Church threatened to close if they were required to work with homosexual couples have now decided to adopt the new equality law following an exemption period.
In total, 11 agencies were given a 21 month 'adjustment' period from the Equality Act in April 2007. The Act outlaws discrimination in the provision of good and services on the grounds of sexual orientation. The exemption period ran out on 1 January 2009.
Five of the agencies have now changed their position and will comply with the law,. One is to close and two others are still seeking exemption, BBC News reports.
Compliance with the new regulations by Catholic adoption agencies has been met with strong criticism by some members of the Church.
In October 2008 the Catholic Bishop of Lancaster, Patrick O'Donoghue, threatened to evict adoption agency Catholic Caring Services from church premises for complying with the Equality Act
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Don't fund formerly Catholic adoption agencies
Action: watch out in Clifton, Southwark, Arundel and Brighton and Portsmouth: they will be asking for your money at the back of church for adoption agencies that no longer follow the teaching of the Church. As Cardinal O'Brien said, the adoption of children by homosexuals makes them "guinea pigs in some distorted social experiment" (see here). But the bishops in these dioceses actually want you to fund this experiment. Letters from locals to the bishops and the CDF would be good to.
From the Catholic Herald (via CFNews): Parishioners' money to fund lost adoption agencies. Four dioceses are planning to hold collections to raise money for former Catholic adoption agencies which have cut ties with the Church to comply with new homosexual rights laws, it emerged this week.
The dioceses of Southwark, Arundel and Brighton and Portsmouth will continue to support the Cabrini Children's Society, formerly their joint Catholic Children's Society, despite having cut ties with it earlier this year.
Clifton diocese will also seek to support its adoption agency in spite of a split with the Church.
The adoption agencies severed ties so they could conform to the Sexual Orientation Regulations (SORs) which will come into effect on New Year's Day. The law requires the agencies to assess same-sex couples as adopters or foster parents.
The bishops resigned as trustees and relinquished control of the society earlier this year.
The Cabrini Children's Society is listed in the 2009 Catholic Directory and also appears under the diocesan collections section of Southwark's directory for the next year. Both the Lenten alms collection and the crib collection at Christmas will go to the society, which is described as "a regional social care agency".
The directory says "the society relies almost entirely on the generosity of our Catholic supporters for voluntary income".
Clarifying the diocesan position, the directory said that no Catholic funds would be used for adoption work.
Canon Martin Lee, the Southwark diocesan financial secretary, said: "The bishops decided that they would put the interest of the children first before all other considerations, so rather than close down the children's society they wanted it to continue to provide services to children with disabilities, in schools and for people with other needs which we want to see continued.
"There are also the many Catholic families which have contributed to the society and have adopted children and who use the services it provides who have an interest in keeping the society alive."
Canon Lee said he would continue to sit on the advisory committee of the agency and be able to safeguard funds for non-adoption services.
The Clifton Children's Society, formerly the Catholic Children's Society, also continues to be advertised in churches around the diocese after Bishop Declan Lang and Mgr Gabriel Leyden resigned as trustees in 2006. Although the agency had cut ties with the diocese when the SORs were passed two years ago, the diocese has continued including it in the diocesan directory.
A spokesman for the diocese said: "Clifton Children's Society remains a separate charity to the Clifton diocese. The society continues to function with the paramount best interests of children at its core. The bishop has had no role on the board of trustees of the Clifton Children's Society for several years."
The cases are likely to cause anger among some Catholics who object to the Church surrendering control of the adoption agencies and then continuing to fund them.
According to the religious discrimination lawyer Neil Addison, a diocese can legally collect for any charity as long as it does not wrongly suggest that it is collecting for a Catholic charity.
Mr Addison has been critical of the apparent willingness of some agencies to break from the Church. He has argued that there is a legal route which would allow the agencies to remain Catholic and conform with the law. He has also questioned the legality of such agencies using funds donated for Catholic purposes. [Catholic Herald]
Thursday, December 04, 2008
Catholic Herald survey on adoption agencies
Please take a moment to complete the short survey: you can find it here.
The Catholic Herald invites you to have your say on the issue of Catholic adoption agencies. We are working with ComRes, a professional market research agency, to collect your opinions.
You may be aware that the law requiring Catholic adoption agencies to comply with standard non-discrimination policies (particularly with respect to homosexual couples seeking to adopt) is about to take effect.
The Catholic Herald has been reporting on this issue and would love to hear what Catholics from across the UK have to say about it.
If you are willing contribute your views, which I hope will be the case, please click HERE to complete the questionnaire, which should take no longer than three minutes.
There will also be the opportunity to join a new survey research panel of UK Christians maintained by ComRes called Cpanel. Please do give positive consideration to joining Cpanel, so that the voice of Catholics can be heard more clearly in the public square.
Thank you in advance for taking part. If you have any queries please contact Phil Martin on 02073401418.
Yours faithfully,
Luke Coppen
Editor
Catholic Herald
Monday, November 24, 2008
Catholic Agencies latest
Briefing.
From CFNews: Two church-run adoption agencies have changed their charitable objects to allow them to turn away same-sex couples on religious grounds.
St Margaret's Adoption and Child Care Society, a Catholic agency in Glasgow, and the Cornerstone Adoption and Fostering Service, an evangelical agency in the north east of England, will now be able to comply with new homosexual rights laws while remaining true to their religious convictions.
Their success in changing their constitutions to comply with the law and stay within the control of their respective churches has raised serious questions over why the eleven English and Welsh Catholic adoption agencies have been unable to do the same.
So far, five of these have broken ties with the bishops to become independent secular institutions and one has wound up its adoption service altogether. Two others are undecided, while those in Westminster, Birmingham and Leeds have seen their applications to change their objects turned down by the Charity Commission.
There are just six weeks remaining before the agencies must comply with the Sexual Orientation Regulations (SORs) that were brought in to ban discrimination against homosexual people in the provision of goods and services.
But there is still time for the agencies to follow the route taken by St Margaret's and Cornerstone.
Neil Addison, a barrister and expert in religious hatred law, said: 'The agencies can amend their constitutions within 24 hours if they wanted to. That is not the problem. All that is lacking is the will.'
He said the agencies were in a position to comply with the SORs and be protected under Part 2 of the Equality Act 2006 - which prevents local authorities discriminating against organisations on the grounds of their religious beliefs - and under Article 9 of the Convention of Human Rights, which guarantees the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion.
He said he thought that the 'real reason' why many agencies had cut ties with the Church was because they were happy to comply with the SORs.
Lawyers representing the three adoption agencies that failed in their attempts to change their objects have been in contact with Cornerstone and St Margaret's to try to find out why they have succeeded.
They had earlier hoped that by explicitly stating that the agencies dealt solely with married couples and single people they would satisfy Regulation 18 of the SORs.
This allows limited discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation by 'reason of, or on the grounds of, the provisions of a charitable instrument'.
But some experts say their approach is directly discriminatory and offers no protection under existing religious discrimination laws. The successful agencies re-worded their objects to specifically refer to their religious character. Discrimination against homosexual couples would be indirect and a consequence of observing their religious ideals.
Jane Hasnip, the chief executive of Cornerstone, based in Stockton-on-Tees, said: 'We comply with Regulation 18 of the SORs because of the way in which our memorandum has been drawn up.
'We have drawn up a statement of faith and a code of practice which basically everyone connected with Cornerstone has to comply with. Part of that code states that people who come to us should be married and marriage is between male and female. We don't actually say we don't accept same-sex couples. Instead, we set out what we believe the Bible's definition of marriage is.'
Jim Richards, the director of the Catholic Children's Society (Westminster), said the success of Cornerstone had 'given hope' to the trustees of his agency in their efforts to both comply with the SORs and to remain in the control of the Archdiocese of Westminster.
'Our solicitors will use all legal arguments open to us,' he said.
The English and Welsh Catholic adoption agencies, which together find new homes for 250 children a year, have until New Year's Day to comply with the SORs or face the prospect of legal action or the withdrawal of their funding by local authorities.
The response of the Catholic Church in England and Wales to the threat to its adoption agencies has been undermined by internal divisions.
Although the bishops were united in opposing the SORs, they have failed to achieve consensus in how their agencies should respond to the law.
The agencies, as charities in their own right, were finally given the task of tackling the problem as they saw fit.
However, they were advised by the Bishops' Conference of England and Wales not to explore legal avenues that would allow them to comply with the SORs and remain Catholic.
Monday, October 20, 2008
Westminster adoption agency not allowed to clarify its objects
Briefing.
From CFNews: A Catholic adoption agency has suffered a severe blow in its battle to stay within the control of the Church. The Catholic Children's Society of the Archdiocese of Westminster, whose president is Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, wanted to change its charitable objects so it could be exempt from new gay rights laws.
It applied to the Charity Commission in the hope that it would not have to assess gay and lesbian couples as adopters and foster parents, a practice described by Pope Benedict XVI as 'gravely immoral'. But commissioners have informed the trustees of the agency that their application has been unsuccessful. Jim Richards, the agency director, said: 'We have got an answer and the answer is 'no'. They have turned down the request. We will now have to consider our next step based on that decision. It is quite a lengthy letter and we want our solicitors to look at it before we decide what to do. It is a decision for our trustees.
'We don't want to rush things, we have to proceed with due deliberation. There are still avenues to explore and objective decisions to be made. We will have to look at all this in the clear light of day.' He added: 'Underlining all this, of course, is our wish to continue as a Catholic agency within the diocese carrying out the teaching of the Church. That is the wish of the trustees.'
Mr Richards said the letter was with Church solicitors and would not discuss its contents further.
He said that agency trustees will meet this week to consider lodging an appeal.
The agency has just under three months to decide whether to either close, comply with the law and leave the control of the Church, or to defy the Government and test the law in the courts.
Five of the 11 Catholic adoption agencies, which together find new homes for 250 children a year, have broken ties with the bishops after trustees caved in to pressure to comply with the regulations ahead of the New Year's Day deadline set by Tony Blair last year.
Another agency has pulled out of adoption altogether while two others have yet to announce their intentions.
Like Westminster, the adoption agencies of Birmingham and Leeds also wanted to continue their policies of placing children only with married heterosexuals and single people and they too have applied to the Charity Commission to change their objects. Trustees of the three agencies knew that their positions could be challenged in the courts but were willing to test the law. The agencies were advised by lawyers that they first needed to amend their constitution so that they could comply with the legislation brought in under the 2006 Equality Act.
They hoped to satisfy Regulation 18 of the SORs which allows limited discrimination in 'pursuance of a charitable instrument' or if 'the restrictions of benefits to persons of that sexual orientation is imposed by reason of, or on the grounds of, the provisions of a charitable instrument'.
At present, the constitution simply refers to helping couples who wish to adopt, and the society sought to protect itself by amending its constitution to refer directly to married heterosexual couples.
Neil Addison, a barrister and author of Religious Discrimination and Hatred Law, said that the agencies could still get their way if they tried to change their objects to state explicitly that they were Catholic institutions instead of vaguely asserting that they would only deal with married couples.
He said they needed to 'take a different route and state in their objects that they must act in accordance with the teachings of the Catholic Church and that would provide them with the legal protection they need and protection under religious discrimination law also'.
The decision by the charity commissioners, however, will represent a huge blow to London's Catholics, who raise thousands of pounds each year for the society. In 2001 the comedian Frank Skinner donated £125,000 he won on ITV's Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?
The Westminster CCS is the oldest Catholic adoption agency in the country and was founded by Bishop Richard Challoner in 1764 when penal laws made it technically illegal to be a Catholic in Britain.
Today it supports some 3,000 children, young people and their families each year through a network of family centres and nurseries, and its fostering, adoption, counselling and child protection services, as well as working with travellers and families on low incomes.
Each year the society finds new families for about 15 'hard-to-place' children with severe emotional or behavioural problems, or who are disabled - and it is this service that is at risk from the regulations.
The agencies act by finding couples and individuals willing to adopt and preparing them to meet legal and local authority criteria for adoption. They are then matched with children put up for adoption by social workers.
As Prime Minister, Mr Blair pushed through laws designed to encourage greater use of adoption in 2002, and as part of the reforms gay couples were allowed to adopt for the first time.
The SORs have created civil laws that give homosexuals the power to sue individuals or institutions for alleged discrimination.
Dr Thomas Ward, President of the National Association of Catholic Families, comments: 'Irrespective of this wicked law these hundreds of vulnerable Catholic children remain the moral responsibility of the Catholic Bishops. Are they now going submit to the law or protect our children? [Catholic Herald, CF News]
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Lancaster Catholic adoption agency defies Bishop (and logic)
Briefing.
From LifeSiteNews, via CFNews: An adoption agency in Lancaster has decided that there is no need for recourse either to Catholic teaching or to the approval of its bishop to continue calling itself Catholic. Catholic Caring Services of Lancaster has told their bishop that they will go ahead with plans to include homosexual partners as prospective adoptive parents and at the same time continue to retain their 'Catholic' character.
Jim Cullen, chief executive of Catholic Caring Services announced that the registered religious charity will consider homosexual partners and at the same time, 'will remain a Catholic charity, operating the same services, with the same staff, same values and same ethos.' 'We are confident,' he said, 'that this course of action is the only transparent and certain way to preserve our services for some of society's most vulnerable children and adults.' In a media release, the charity said it 'always has been compliant with the law and is confident that compliance with the new equality legislation will not compromise its determination and moral responsibility to retain as paramount the best interests of the child.'
The agency went on to say that its decision had been reached after two years of 'consultation and dialogue, particularly' with Bishop O'Donohue.
The dialogue appears to have been one-sided, however. This summer, the trustees of Catholic Caring Services voted 6-1 to reject a suggestion by Bishop O'Donohue to have the agency reflect a completely Catholic orientation. The trustees approved an 'open policy' under which it will accept homosexual and lesbian partnerships for consideration. The bishop responded that the agency, funded by the diocese, could not allow children to be adopted by homosexual partners and retain the name 'Catholic.'
'I find it unthinkable, indeed heart-breaking, that Catholic Caring Services, so linked to the Catholic Church since its inception, would abandon its position and capitulate to recent same-sex adoption legislation,' wrote Bishop O'Donohue in a letter to trustees.
Bishop O'Donohue issued an ultimatum to the agency saying it must explore 'all possible means' within the law to refuse homosexual adoptions or possibly be ousted from diocesan-owned properties and have its diocesan funding cut off.
In his letter, Bishop O'Donohue wrote, 'Catholic Caring Services is a Catholic Charity and was established with Catholic money provided to it in the belief that Catholic Caring Services Trustees would use that money in accordance with Catholic teaching.' Bishop O'Donohue also warned the agency that they would come into conflict with the government's Charity Commission if they tried unilaterally to redefine themselves as a secular agency.
The agency, however, would admit only that the SORs 'would appear to some to challenge the Church's views on marriage,' and asserted, 'At no time has any judgement been made that was not confidently based upon the child's best interests.'
Fr. Timothy Finigan, a theology professor at one of England's major seminaries, said the Sexual Orientation Regulations are impossible to reconcile to a Catholic ethos. 'It doesn't just 'appear to some', it clearly does, flatly, contradict the teaching of the Church about marriage,' Fr. Finigan told LifeSiteNews.com.
Fr. Finigan refuted the agency's claim that they could carry on being a Catholic institution while offering children to homosexual partners. 'Clearly the whole of the charity's ethos has been sacrificed if they intend to go along with this unjust legislation.'
'The church decides who is a Catholic charity and who isn't. And Bishop O'Donohue has made it clear that they will not be a Catholic charity if they go along with the SORs,' he said.
Fr. Finigan's opinion is supported by a document from the Vatican's highest doctrinal office that said that, far from being in the child's best interests, giving children to active homosexual persons for adoption constitutes an act of 'violence' to the child.
A 2003 statement from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, then under the leadership of Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI), said that homosexual adoptions 'mean doing violence to these children, in the sense that their condition of dependency would be used to place them in an environment that is not conducive to their full human development.'
Among those to whom the new legislation would 'appear' to contradict Catholic teaching are the Catholic bishops of England and Wales, who attempted unsuccessfully to gain a legal exemption from the SORs for Catholic adoption agencies from the Labour government. But Tony Blair's government offered only a 'compromise' in which Catholic agencies had two years to comply or close. [LifeSiteNews]
Sunday, September 28, 2008
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."
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Scottish bishops criticise Government policy
Briefing: this is an excellent statement, and as Damian Thompson says, puts the bishops of England and Wales to shame. It focuses on family policy and the homosexual adoption issue: on both of which the Bishops of England and Wales have apparently nothing to say, as a group. Their failure to agree to a statement over the latter is remarked on by Bishop O'Donaghue in his recent 'Fit For Mission? - Parishes' booklet. The Scottish bishops point out that children can only be helped through families: an obvious point which has been lost on Labour, in its ideologically driven attack on the family.
From the Scottish Catholic Observer (in part): Scotland’s bishops have accused Gordon Brown’s Government of planning to undermine families.
The Bishop’s Conference, responding to the draft legislative programme for the coming Parliamentary session, attacked both the government’s lack of support for families and its attempts to impose its ideological beliefs on society.
“Catholic adoption agencies are now to be indifferent as to whether a child is to be placed with a married couple of a homosexual cohabiting couple; this is gravely wrong,” the bishops say.
The Scottish hierarchy has now called on the government to do more for families and rethink its legislation, including the forthcoming Equality Bill.
The bishops made the call in a joint response to the legislative programme, which will be unveiled in the Queen’s speech at the opening of the next session of Parliament.
“We highlight the importance of the human family as the building block of society. Centuries of experience and learning testify to the importance of supporting family life for the well-being of society,” the bishops say in their response.
There is a duty on the government to give positive benefits to married parents, according to the Scottish hierarchy. The trend of ignoring the family when attempting to help children is “gravely deleterious,” the bishops say. “Policies must help encourage family stability.”
Only in this way, say the bishops, can child poverty be reduced and educational achievement increased.
See the full article.
Monday, August 04, 2008
Catholic Adoption Agency to give children to homosxual couples
Action: complaints, please, to the bishops involved, especially from Catholics in their dioceses: Archbishop MacDonald of Southwark, Bishop Conry of Arundel and Brighton, and Bishop Hollis of Portsmouth.
This is the worst option: whereas the Leeds agency is closing, the Westminster one is going to test the law in the courts, the Arundel and Brighton, Portsmouth and Southwark agency is simply going to change its policy to comply with the law.
From The Catholic News Agency: The largest Catholic adoption agency in England and Wales has decided to implement an adoption policy that does not rule out same-sex couples in the face of new laws that forbid such screening. The change in its adoption policy was made with the full support of the bishops who oversee the agency.
Full story here.
The decision, made by the Catholic Children’s Society of Arundel and Brighton, Portsmouth and Southwark (A&BSP) means the society will not turn away any homosexual couples who present themselves as potential adopters.
Terry Connor, chief executive of the society, explained to The Universe that any changes would not start until January and were a direct result of the recent Sexual Orientation Regulations which enforced “rights” for same sex couples who wish to adopt.
Sunday, August 03, 2008
Adoption proposal condemned
Briefing: pro-lifers always, and rightly, prefer children to be given up by their mothers for adoption, than for them to be killed. It is important to bear in mind that this is a (legitimate) use of the 'lesser of two evils' argument. Where abortion is illegal, as in Ireland, the right of children to be brought up by their natural parents should be protected by law, at least when the parents are married.
From SPUC: The Crisis Pregnancy Agency in Ireland has suggested that the law should be changed to allow married couples to have unwanted children adopted. Ms Caroline Spillane was speaking to a parliamentary committee and also described her organisation's campaign to get young people to delay their first sexual intercourse. [Irish Times, 24 July] Patrick Buckley of European Life Network said of the adoption proposal: "This suggestion is completely unacceptable and should be resisted. It is contrary to both the Irish Constitution and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. If families are in financial difficulty, it would be more appropriate for the state to provide adequate assistance rather than breaking them up. Every child has a right to be raised in his or her family of origin."
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Unmarried couples to adopt in Northern Ireland
Briefing. Another abuse of the language of human rights to deprive children of the right to a stable family life.
From CFNews: Unmarried couples in Northern Ireland will be allowed to jointly adopt children following a ruling announced by Law Lords. The Adoption (Northern Ireland) Order 1987 does not allow a couple to jointly adopt a child if they are not married. But this week judges in the House of Lords - the highest court in the land - have said the law breaches the Human Rights Act. An appeal was brought to the Lords by an unmarried couple from Northern Ireland. The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has a daughter from a previous relationship. The man she lives with wants to adopt the girl together with her mother. If the couple got married they could lawfully adopt the girl, but they have refused to do so. Adoption by unmarried couples - including homosexual couples - was legalised in England and Wales in 2002. However, critics said this was more to do with adults' rights than the best interests of children. The average length of cohabitation is two years, at which point a couple tends to marry or split up. Some 60 per cent of cohabiting couples go on to marry, but of those who do not 83 per cent will break up within 10 years. If cohabiting couples have a child, they are at least six times more likely to split up than married couples. Historically, this is why adoption law has required couples to make a legal commitment to each other before making a joint legal commitment to a child. [Christian Institute]
