Senior Church of England bishops last night added their weight to Catholic opposition to legislation requiring religious adoption agencies in Britain to consider homosexual couples as potential adoptive parents. The head of the Anglican Church, Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams and Dr John Sentamu, the Archbishop of York said that “the rights of conscience cannot be made subject to legislation, however well meaning”.
The intervention comes in the wake of an open letter from the head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor. Cardinal Murphy O’Connor called the requirement “unreasonable, unnecessary and unjust discrimination against Catholics” He was reacting to reports that the Equality Act 2006, which comes into force in April, will force Catholic adoption agencies to refer homosexual couples to local authorities as suitable adoptive parents. Such a move would create huge problems for Catholic agencies, Archbishop Murphy O’Connor said. “Catholic teaching about the foundations of family life, a teaching shared not only by other Christian Churches but also other faiths, means that Catholic adoption agencies would not be able to recruit and consider homosexual couples as potential adoptive parents,” he continued.
The legislation, as currently worded, would force Catholic agencies to “act against the teaching of the Church and their own consciences”, the Archbishop argued. Pointing out that the Catholic Church “utterly condemns all forms of unjust discrimination, violence, harassment or abuse directed against people who are homosexual”, he nonetheless went on to say that the Church placed “significant emphasis on marriage, as it is from the personal union of a man and a woman that new life is born and it is within the loving context of such a relationship that a child can be welcomed and nurtured”.
It is understood that Prime Minister Tony Blair and Ruth Kelly, the Minister for Communities and Local Government are keen on compromise with the Church over the issue. However, other members of the Cabinet are opposed to any deal on the issue. Lord Falconer of Thoroton, the Lord Chancellor, and Ben Bradshaw, the Environment Minister are understood to be the most forceful opponents of change in the Government’s stance. The legislation has already been introduced in Northern Ireland.
Meanwhile, new figures show that there has been a huge rise in the number of gay adoptions in the UK. Official statistics released last Thursday that one in every 20 children adopted from care goes to live with a gay couple. Adoption by homosexual couples is rising by more than 50 per cent a year in some areas.
