Posted on 01/23/2007 11:10:30 AM PST by presidio9
The Catholic Church of England and Wales has dug in for a battle with the government over proposed laws which would force their adoption agencies to consider placing children with gay couples.
Catholic leader Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor wrote to Prime Minister Tony Blair and the cabinet Tuesday, warning that the Church would have to close its adoption agencies if legislation forced them to act against their teachings.
Murphy-O'Connor, the Archbishop of Westminster, said the Church would have "serious difficulty" with planned regulations outlawing discrimination against homosexuals in the provision of goods and services.
Plans to force Catholic adoption agencies to consider applications from gays would require them to act against Catholic teaching on marriage and family life, he added.
The adoption agencies could close if they lose local authority funding.
Adoption by homosexual couples is legal in Britain and Catholic agencies usually pass on adoption requests from gays to other agencies.
The Sexual Orientation Regulations are expected to come into force in April.
Blair has not yet made his mind up on the points raised by Murphy-O'Connor, his official spokesman said Tuesday.
"This is an issue with sensitivities on all sides and the prime minister recognises that and that is why it is worth having some discussions in government before we come to a decision," the spokesman said.
But Blair's wife Cherie is a Catholic and he is thought to be sympathetic to the Church's position.
Communities Secretary Ruth Kelly, a Catholic with links to the traditionalist Opus Dei group, has clashed with cabinet colleagues and wants an opt-out for the Church, according to reports at the weekend.
But Lord Charles Falconer, the lord chancellor and Britain's de facto justice minister, said it would be "extremely difficult" to envisage any exemptions.
There are 12 Catholic agencies which deal with either adoption or fostering in England and Wales, which are responsible for 32 percent of voluntary sector adoptions.
A spokesman for the Catholic Church in England and Wales warned that they could all close if they were to lose local authority funding.
If it comes to that, then indeed they will have to close.
Can't break the divine law.
If the state wants to bear all of those costs, so be it. England's taxes will go up to cover the higher cost of state civil servants over Church employees. Again, so be it. No compromise with the Devil.
It'a problem here as well.
Where is the 21st century Sir Thomas More?
Most likely living in Poland.
And,BTW......
"No, I don't know Carl LaFong - capital L, small a, capital F, small o, small n, small g. And if I did know Carl LaFong, I wouldn't admit it!"
It's time for the Church to get out of the adoption business while making it crystal clear to straight couples that the law will now push them into purchasing a child just the way Madonna did.
Put England -- and Massachusetts -- under Interdict.
But why, is Alaska RED in the COUNTRIES map, but not in the STATES map?
(Your home page)
Ahhh, Mr. Dukinfield..the J.S. Bach of comedy.
Now I'm wondering if Catholic agencies in the states are permitted to restrict their adoptions to married couples. Hmmm....
Are U series?
I see a Monty Python skit. What an idiotic name.
The government enters the bedroom. 'Course, that's OK for the liberals on this occasion. The catch cry "keep government out of the bedroom" can be conveniently forgotten when it comes to trash like this.
God, in his mercy, allows these things in order to help rouse a virtually moribund Church from its torpor.
Because,I guess,I've "visited" the US,of which Alaska is a part,but Alaska is one of the many states in which I have never set foot (but I flew over it twice,but that doesn't count).
Catholic Charities has ended its Adoption Ministry in MA. Thanks Muffy! Now ads for adoption are playing on WRKO. Without the vehicle by which women can place their children in families that look like Jesus, Mary and Joseph, they are keeping them. If a single mother wanted her child to have a family that was missing a father, she already has one and is not going to give the child up for some secular-progressive social experiment. Children are not Lab Rats for Gays.
Let there be no misunderstanding; activists would rather that the Catholic Church and other faith-based organizations get out of the adoption business rather than allow them to operate and refuse to permit gay adoptions. If that means that there's the State's apparatus (and the concomitant taxing) has to increase, that's fine with them. You and I pay for their lack of morality.
Since Vatican City is considered an independent state within a state (Italy); they should declare every Catholic Church everywhere to be an embassy or consulate and therefore "foreign" soil and not subject to contrary laws.
Just a thought.
Bump
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