Catholic Group Loses Adoption Challenge

A judgment issued Thursday says that a Catholic adoption agency in the U.K. cannot continue to operate if it discriminates against gay people. Catholic Care had hoped it could circumvent antidiscrimination rules.

According to the Daily Telegraph, “In March a High Court judge had ordered that the Charity Commission consider whether to allow the agency's request to continue refusing to consider same-sex parents, thanks to a loophole intended to protect homosexual charities.

“Catholic Care had argued that a clause of Labour’s Sexual Orientation Regulations, inserted to ensure gay organisations could not be sued for discrimination, entitled it to change its ‘charitable objects.’”

However, on Thursday the Charity Commission ruled against Catholic Care, citing the “serious matter” of discriminating on the grounds of sexual orientation.

According to the Telegraph, the ruling means that Catholic Care, the last Catholic adoption agency standing in England since the gay rights law took effect last year, will likely have to close its adoption service, or else go against Catholic teaching and face the loss of church funding.