Last week, two cases emerged in the UK which highlighted the continuing assault on religious liberty and freedom of conscience.
The Greater Glasgow and Clyde section of the NHS announced that it is to appeal Scotland’s supreme civil court ruling that two Catholic nurses would not have to delegate, supervise or support staff involved in abortions. Mary Doogan and Connie Wood won their case against the NHS in April but are now faced with yet another legal case.
Also in Glasgow, the last remaining Catholic adoption agency in Britain is facing being shut down for adhering to Church teaching on marriage.
St Margaret’s Children and Family Care Society is being threatened with closure over its desire to provide every adoptive child with a mother and a father.
In 2007, the Sexual Orientation Regulations Act effectively forced most of the 10 Catholic adoption agencies in England and Wales to either shut down or sever their links with the Church because the regulations required them to be willing to provide adoption services to same-sex couples.
As barrister and religious freedom advocate Neil Addison points out in this blog, only the St Margaret’s agency in Glasgow has continued to operate in accordance with Catholic teaching, giving preference to opposite-sex married couples.
It is for this reason that it is being threatened with closure by the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR).
Addison writes: “The agency has a particular skill in finding parents for ‘difficult to adopt’ children – those who are older or are physically or mentally handicapped – and it is recognised as providing an outstandingly successful service.
“The problem that St Margaret’s is having arises from its policy that prospective adoptive parents should be a husband and wife married for at least two years.
“That policy has been described by OSCR as discriminatory against same-sex couples and St Margaret’s has been threatened with removal from the Charity Register which would close it down.”
Addison writes: “What the OSCR has completely failed to respect is the religious nature of St Margaret’s and the fact that its policies do not just apply to gay people but also to unmarried heterosexual couples.
“Also, the policy is based on what is the first choice of prospective parent. It does not mean that in no circumstances whatsoever would St Margaret’s consider a single person or a same-sex couple, but it puts the first priority on finding a married man and woman as the best choice for the child. So far St Margaret’s has always managed to find appropriate parents for the children referred to it, which is a fact that the OSCR has chosen to ignore.
“The consequences of the actions by the OSCR are profound, as Brian McGuigan, a St Margaret’s Trustee, emphasises when he said: ‘Our country is on the brink of declaring illegal the belief that every child where possible deserves a mother and father.’
“The implications are also profound for all other religious based charities, since none of them will be able to guarantee that their policies and principles are in accordance with their religious principles. The decision by the OSCR also casts doubt on the assurances by both the Scottish and British governments that churches will not be obliged to perform same-sex marriages.
“Based on what the OSCR has done any church that refused to perform same-sex marriages could find its charitable status revoked or its trustees removed and replaced. The OSCR decision has implications not just in Scotland but also for charities in England and Wales, since the Equality Act applies south of the border.
“St Margaret’s is involved in a very important struggle – not just for Catholics, but for everyone in Britain who believes in freedom. The freedom to associate, and the freedom to form independent organisations and charities are fundamental if democracy and freedom are to have any real meaning.”
