Bishop gives ultimatum to agency over gay adoption
By Simon Caldwell
10 October 2008

A Catholic bishop has threatened to evict an adoption agency from Church premises after its trustees said they wanted to comply with new gay rights laws.

Bishop Patrick O'Donoghue of Lancaster also warned the Catholic Caring Services that he would begin legal action to recover thousands of pounds left by Catholics in legacies and wills if it did not imminently change it position.

In a letter to the trustees, Bishop Donoghue said the agency could no longer consider itself to be Catholic if it assessed same-sex couples as potential adopters or foster parents.

"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," he said.

"As your bishop I cannot give permission to an agency of the Catholic Church to act in opposition to her teaching and her long and rich experience of the placement of children with adoptive parents."

He added: "On grounds of conscience, formed by faith, we believe that same-sex partnerships do not provide the essential characteristics necessary for the well-being and development of the child. I remain convinced that the best interests of children are served when they live with and are brought up by a married couple. Any dilution of this fundamental principle can harm children and undermine their paramount place in the whole question of adoption."

The bishop has given the adoption agency a week to reconsider its position before he instructs lawyers to force the organisation, which each year finds new families for about 25 children in Lancashire and Cumbria, to formally break from the Lancaster diocese.

This would involve informing the Charity Commission that the agency is no longer Catholic and ordering the removal of the word "Catholic" from its title.

The agency would also be banned from raising funds through Catholic schools, parishes or organisations.

Bishop O'Donoghue has also told trustees that there would be a review of leases of three Church-owned properties in Preston, Lancashire, used by the agency, including a children's home, to determine "whether there is any breach of the terms of occupation".

The bishop said: "I would imagine that many of you may consider my insistence on these actions harsh and even extreme, but this would be to underestimate the seriousness of your decision to reject, thus far, the teaching of the Catholic Church and your failure to uphold your responsibility as trustees of a Catholic agency.

"Surely you must have realised that when you made such a decision there would be tragic consequences."

The agency first decided to assess same-sex couples in spring after Parliament approved the Sexual Orientation Regulations last year without any exemptions for Catholic organisations. Catholic adoption agencies were given until New Year's Day 2009 to find a way to comply with the law banning discrimination in the provision of goods and services to gays or to close down altogether.

Bishop O'Donoghue wants his agency to change its charitable objects so it can appeal to human rights law to remain Catholic. He was out-voted by 6-1 at a meeting in July.

But on Tuesday the trustees defiantly announced that they would both comply with the SORs and remain a Catholic institution.

Compliance with the new gay rights laws would not compromise the agency's "determination and moral responsibility to retain as paramount the best interests of the child", they argued.

"The decision of the trustees has been taken after extensive consultation, legal advice and a great deal of prayer and discernment," said Jim Cullen, chief executive. "We will remain a Catholic charity, operating the same services, with the same staff, same values and same ethos. We are confident 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."

He also urged Catholics to continue to give money to the agency, which was founded by the Church in 1934. "The people who donate money to this charity do so to help improve the lives of children, families and adults in need," he said. "Their help makes such a direct difference that I am confident of their continuing support." Once the matter is resolved, Catholic Caring Services is likely to be the fifth of 11 adoption agencies to break from the Church and become independent.

The first to go was the St Francis Children's Society in Northampton in May, followed a fortnight later by the Catholic Children's Society of the Nottingham diocese.

A month later the country's largest Catholic adoption agency, the dioceses of Southwark, Portsmouth and Arundel and Brighton's Catholic Children's Society, decided to cut links with the bishops. Last month the St David's Children Society, covering three dioceses in Wales, also followed suit. Only one agency, the Catholic Children's Rescue Society of the Salford diocese, has so far pulled out of adoption altogether.

The Catholic Children's Society in Westminster archdiocese is hoping to remain within the control of the Church and to challenge the laws in court if necessary, the preferred route of Bishop O'Donoghue.

The Father Hudson's Society of the Archdiocese of Birmingham and the Catholic Care agency of the Leeds diocese are considering the same course. Adoption agencies in Liverpool and Bristol are still considering how best to respond to the law.