Updated Saturday morning
In August 2011, we reported that the RC adoption agency, Catholic Care, had been given leave to appeal to the Upper Tribunal, after three earlier appeals had all failed.
Now, more than a year later, that appeal is being heard. Third Sector Online reports Upper Tribunal hears latest Catholic Care appeal today.
The Upper Tribunal will today hear the latest appeal by the charity Catholic Care against a ruling preventing it from excluding gay couples from using its adoption service.
It is the fourth in a series of appeals by Catholic Care (Diocese of Leeds) since the Charity Commission refused its request in November 2008 to change its charitable objects in order to restrict access to its adoption service to heterosexual couples.
The charity has argued that if it did not discriminate in this way it would lose its funding from the Catholic Church and would have to close the service.
Today’s appeal, which will be heard by Mr Justice Sales at the Rolls Building in London, is against the charity tribunal’s rejection of its request to change its objects in April 2011. The hearing is scheduled to last two days…
Frank Cranmer has some analysis at Law and Religion UK Catholic Care and adoption by same-sex couples – the story continues.
Updates
Third Sector has two reports from the hearing:
Charity tribunal ‘misdirected itself’ over Catholic Care, Upper Tribunal told
Overturning Catholic Care decision could set dangerous precedent, says Charity Commission
What is it about the Catholic Care facilitators that is so afraid of entrusting need orphans or parent-less children with stably-settled same-sex adoptive parents? Are they afraid that they might be treated with a similar recklessness to that of R.C. priests who are guilty of abuse?
Parenting is an entirely different matter. and presumably all adoptive parents are screened for any historical behavioural problems with children, so what is all the fuss about? It seems that the R.C. Church authorities are putting undue pressure on agencies that might otherwise be open to the enabling process of same-sex adopters.
They are providing a service which can easily be provided by the state. Just as nuns used to run some hospitals until the costs of equipment became too much for them. Perhaps they can find another service to provide instead which still justifies the tax free status of money given to them, and let the state provide the adoption service instead.
Catholic adoption agencies were established to enable Catholic children to be raised by Catholics in a Catholic home. What’s wrong with that? The alternative was confinement in an orphanage. The Church of England Children’s Society had the same aim. Catholic doctrinal teaching assumes that parents are male and female. The imbalance of late-c20 attitudes to normality has introduced a situation unknown to history. How can anybody expect a Catholic organization to work against the teaching of the Church and remain Catholic? No sane pair of homosexuals would approach a Catholic adoption agency for anything other than political reasons. There are… Read more »
“No sane pair of homosexuals would approach a Catholic adoption agency for anything other than political reasons.”
I have heard it said that Catholic adoption agencies are particularly known for placing hard to place children – severely disabled children etc.
If social conscience caused a gay couple to wish to look after a particularly disadvantaged child a Catholic agency would be their best and most experienced partner and the most likely one to facilitate an adoption that does not end in failure.
If only prejudice didn’t trump everything else.
I have not looked up the historic articles of any Roman Catholic adoption agency but suspect that John Bowles’ understanding of what happened in the 19th and three quarters of the 20th century may be close to the truth. What went wrong has only just begun to be documented, though I have to admit that the disastrous and abusive relationships that flourished in Roman Catholic institutions was repeated in Anglican charities and secular “Homes” and was obviously not part of the high minded and gracious spirit of their founding fathers. The practice John Bowles describes has not been a part… Read more »
“Catholic adoption agencies were established to enable Catholic children to be raised by Catholics in a Catholic home.” – John Bowles –
And does that situation still obtain today, Mr Bowles? And are Catholic Care Services solely concerned with Roman Catholic children?
It does not surprise me that some Catholic adoption agencies have become compromised and shredded by secularist legislation. But, if so,why is Catholic Care testing the law? Surely the answer is that it wishes to maintain a Catholic identity with all that this involves. All of these Catholic agencies have been supported for decades by Catholic subscriptions made in good faith that Catholic orphans would find acceptance in Catholic homes. If they have become little better than agents of the State,compromised by political correctness, the subscribers and people who include them in their wills should be told. It interests me… Read more »
John Bowles asks why Catholic Care in the diocese of Leeds is testing the law and suggests its motive must surely be “that it wishes to maintain a Catholic identity with all that this involves”. I must say that I have asked myself this question too. What is evident is that the statements coming out of the RC Church along the lines “every child deserves a mother and a father” are intended to whip up support for them while completely misleading the public as to their actual practice. If John Bowles can be seen as the average person in the… Read more »
Thank you, Martin, you’ve certainly answered my question, which was; Do all Catholic Care agencies only care for Roman Catholic children being adopted by heterosexual Roman Catholic parents? Your answer is NO. And that would be consistent with their acceptance of Public funding for their work.
It has been suggested that Catholic Care Leeds has been so dependent upon its contracts with Leeds City Council with respect to adoption and fostering services that it cannot afford to lose them. the donations which come in from local Catholic parish congregations are simply not sufficient. If it can persuade the powers that be that it has a legitimate defense in maintaining its discrimination against same-sex couples then, presumably, any existing or future contracts with Leeds City Council could stay the right side of the law? However, at the end, as I have expressed many times, the majority of… Read more »
It saddens me that these Catholic agencies have been corrupted beyond recognition. They came into being and were supported by hard-earned Catholic subscriptions in order to give Catholic orphans a Catholic life in a Catholic home. The tenor of some comments is that this contribution is negligible and no longer counts. In which case, why is Catholic Care so keen to retain its Catholic identity? Surely it would,some maintain, be honest to merge with the conditions imposed by the secular State? In the meanwhile, should the case not succeed, I hope that it will refuse or return Catholic subscriptions rather… Read more »
Yes, Martin. I think it was at the last appeal when the judges made reference to the fact that even if it became legal for Catholic groups to discriminate against gay people it was highly unlikely local authorities would be able to offer contracts to them because of their failure to meet National Standards which forbid discrimination. So there does seem to be another motive behind all this that doesn’t have much to do with the children. And indeed, the very charity that turned us away is now positively recruiting in the gay community. It also is still house in… Read more »
I don’t really see how the situation would be any different if it was purely a case of the Catholic church placing children from Catholic homes into Catholic families with purely Catholic funding. Those children would still be the responsibility of the state until they were adopted and the state would still have to safeguard that they are not placed in environments that might not be able to support them according to the laws of the state. This was the case with the Christian couple that was told they could no longer foster children because they did not accept the… Read more »
Sorry, my last comment seemed a bit of a non sequitur, dealing with a different question. But it’s all linked. The Catholic church will have to get over its irrational prejudice of gay people and will have to be able to treat gay couples the same as straight ones and treat gay children the same as straight ones. Otherwise it really cannot take an active part in adoptions that involve government responsibility and or government funds.