British cardinal seeks exemption for adoptions by same-sex couples

Published: 2007-01-22

LONDON (CNS) -- The head of the English and Welsh bishops' conference told British Prime Minister Tony Blair that seven Catholic adoption agencies would close if the government forced them to place children with same-sex couples. In a Jan. 22 letter, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor of Westminster, England, appealed to Blair to grant the agencies an exemption from proposed gay rights laws called the Sexual Orientation Regulations. "This is an appeal for fair play," the cardinal said. He said that without the exemption the Catholic agencies, which are partly funded by the government, would be forced to end a service that each year places more than 200 problem children with new families. Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor said that closing the agencies was a "wholly avoidable" outcome. He said the bishops believed it would be "unreasonable, unnecessary and unjust discrimination against Catholics" if the government insisted that they must act "against the teaching of the church and their own consciences by being obliged in law to provide such a service."

Copyright (c) 2007 Catholic News Service /U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without the prior written authority of Catholic News Service .