British prime
minister Tony Blair said Thursday that the government will
announce a decision next week on a proposed regulation,
opposed by the Roman Catholic Church, banning
discrimination against gay couples wanting to adopt
children. Blair personally favors the right of gay and
lesbian couples to adopt, but in a statement issued
Thursday he did not declare whether he was for or
against giving the church the exemption it has sought
from the regulation, spokespeople with his office said.
"We will announce a decision next week and then
vote. I am committed to finding a way through this
sensitive and difficult issue," Blair said in the
statement. The issue will be put to a vote in parliament
within a month, his office staff said.
Church officials said earlier this week that
Catholic adoption agencies would be forced to shut
down if they are made to consider gay couples as
prospective parents, and Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor,
the head of the church in England and Wales, wrote a
letter to Blair asking for an exemption.
Education secretary Alan Johnson said the
government was unlikely to grant the request despite
protests from Catholic and Anglican leaders. "I've
never seen the case for an exemption," Johnson said in an
interview with British Broadcasting Corp. radio. "To me,
this is legislation to prevent discrimination on the
grounds of sexual orientation, and you cannot do that
and at the same time allow discrimination in one area."
Asked about Blair's position, Johnson said, "I
don't think the prime minister is in favor of an
exemption." Home secretary John Reid told reporters
Thursday he was also against the provision of exemptions for
the church. "If you bring in a law which says all people
will be treated equally, then all people will be
treated equally," Reid said.
He said nothing should overrule the fundamental
principle of the law but conceded that temporary
arrangements could be made to allow church adoption
agencies to adapt to the regulations. "For people with
conscience, we should try to help to find practical ways
round it," Reid said.
In his letter, published on Tuesday,
Murphy-O'Connor said the church believed "it would be
unreasonable, unnecessary, and unjust discrimination
against Catholics for the government to insist that if
they wish to continue to work with local authorities,
Catholic adoption agencies must act against the
teaching of the church and their own consciences by
being obliged in law to provide such a service."
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams and
Archbishop of York John Sentamu, the leaders of the
Church of England, subsequently sided with the
cardinal. "The rights of conscience cannot be made subject
to legislation, however well meaning," they said in a
letter to Blair.
The Muslim Council of Great Britain,
representing 400 Islamic organizations, on Thursday
declared its support for the Catholic position. "As
Muslims we are obliged to uphold the moral standards
and codes of conduct dictated by our faith," said Muhammad
Abdul Bari, the Muslim Council's secretary-general.
Government officials said last year, when they
began a consultation process on the proposed
regulation, that they saw no case for an exemption,
Johnson said. "The argument comes from the consultation
and the Catholic Church who wrote a very public letter
saying we deserve an exemption," Johnson said. "That
means we have to debate the issues when there's a very
clear response and a sensitive issue involving one
particular faith group. They are entitled to make their
response, and we are entitled to debate that, and
that's what we do in cabinet all the time," he said.
(Robert Barr, AP)