English diocese to stop adoption work because of gay rights laws

Published: 2008-04-21

LONDON (CNS) -- An English Catholic diocese will cut its ties with an adoption agency because the diocese cannot accept the government's new laws on homosexual rights. Bishop Malcolm McMahon of Nottingham said he and the trustees of the adoption agency, Catholic Children's Society, felt they had been forced into the decision by the Sexual Orientation Regulations, a law that bans discrimination against gays in the provision of goods and services. The law would compel the diocese to place children in the care of same-sex couples. "We have been coerced into this, I am not happy about it at all," the bishop told Catholic News Service April 18. "The regulations have coerced the children's society into going against the church's teaching, and we don't wish to do that." A Vatican directive issued in 2003 said it was morally wrong to place children in the care of same-sex couples. Bishop McMahon said that the agency will try "to salvage what it does best" by merging with the adoption agency of the Anglican Diocese of Southwell and Nottingham in October.

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