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THE AMERICAN DIARY FREDDY GRAY ON OBAMA AND THE CATHOLIC VOTE PAGE 4

No. 6357

www.catholicherald.co.uk

June 13, 2008 £1 (Republic of Ireland €1.50)

Cardinal’s adoption agency defies Government over gay rights laws

BYSIMONCALDWELL

ACATHOLICadoption agency headed by Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor is to become the first in Britain to defy the Government over laws that would force it to place children with same-sex couples. The Catholic Children’s Society (Westminster) aims to stay open in spite of the new rules –and to continue its policy of placing children solely with married heterosexuals and single people. Church lawyers believe they have found a way in which the charity can comply with the Sexual Orientation Regulations (SORs) and remain loyal to Catholic teaching opposed to both gay marriage and adoption by gay couples. They hope that by simply amending its constitution to refer directly to “married heterosexual couples”, rather than the present reference to “couples who wish to adopt”, they will fulfil the demands of the legislation. The agency, based in North Kensington, west London, will now begin a legal process to amend its constitution before the law kicks in on New Year’s Day. Cardinal MurphyO’Connor, the president of the CCS, said: “I fully support the decision of the trustees in their endeavours to continue the valuable work of the society.” The Cardinal is taking a risk that could see the charity’s actions challenged in the courts by campaigners. But he also appears to be sending a clear message to other bishops that they should fight to save their remaining adoption agencies after a week that has seen one

Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor is supporting the stance taken by the Catholic Children’s Society (Westminster)

Manchester-based agency pull out of adoption altogether. Another agency, also called the Catholic Children’s Society, but covering the dioceses of Arundel and Brighton, Portsmouth and Southwark, confirmed days earlier that it would cut ties with the Church to stay open, possibly re-naming itself the

Cabrini Children’s Society. Catholic adoption agencies in Nottingham and Northampton have also declared that they will pursue independence from the Church. The decision by the Westminster trustees will undoubtedly be welcomed by the many London Catholics who raise thousands of

pounds for the agency each year, among them the comedian Frank Skinner, who in 2001 gave the CCS the £125,000 prize money he had won on ITV’s Who Wants to be a Millionaire?. The CCS has been advised that a new constitution could help the charity to comply with the legislation by appeal

ing to Regulation 18 of the SORs. This reads that “nothing in these regulations shall make it unlawful for a person to provide benefits only to a person of a particular sexual orientation if (a) he acts in pursuance of a charitable instrument and (b) the restrictions of benefits to persons of that sexual orien

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tation is imposed by reason of, or on the grounds of, the provisions of a charitable instrument”. Jim Richards, director of the CCS, said: “Our original constitution goes back to 1905 and, as you can imagine, in those days the SORs weren’t on the horizon. The assumption we made then, quite

understandably, is that when we talked about adoption and couples we are talking about married couples, but because of the SORs we have to spell that out and make clear that what we are talking about is heterosexual married couples. “We have received legal advice that indicates that this is a possibility and on the basis of that legal advice we are going forward to alter our constitutions and later in the summer we will be formally seeking approval from the Charity Commission.” Mr Richards said that, besides married couples, the agency would continue its policy of assessing single people, either heterosexual or homosexual, on the sole basis of the stable environment they could offer a homeless child. “We simply want to continue to do what we have been doing for many, many years reasonably successfully,” he said. “Adoption is a very important part of the Church’s work with children who are extremely vulnerable.” He said the crisis “need not have happened if the Government had given an exemption to the adoption agencies as governments in other EU countries did”. “Other countries didn’t see adoption as goods and services and therefore adoption didn’t fall under their SORs,” he added. “This is a problem of the Government’s making which has been foisted on us.” The CCS (Westminster) is the oldest Catholic adoption agency in the country and was founded by Bishop Richard Challoner in 1764 when penal laws made it illegal to be a Roman Catholic in Britain. Today it supports some 3,000 children, young people

and their families every year through a network of family centres and nurseries, and its fostering, adoption, counselling and child protection services, as well as its work with travellers and families on low incomes. Each year the society finds new families for about 15 “hard-to-place” children, most of whom are suffering from severe emotional or behavioural problems, or who are disabled –and it is this service that is at risk from the regulations. Auxiliary Bishop Bernard Longley of Westminster, the chairman of the CCS, announced the trustees’ decision in a letter to priests last week, saying it was made with regard to Catholic teaching on the “centrality of marriage and the importance of family life”. “The trustees are satisfied that the society’s circumstances are such that we are now able to take the necessary steps to comply with the legislation by applying Regulation 18 of the SORs,” he said. “It is important to stress that the adoption services of our society are still very much open for business and applications from people wishing to adopt are most welcome at any time.” The announcement came just days after the Catholic Children’s Rescue Society of the Diocese of Salford became the first of the 13 Catholic adoption agencies to say it would stop assessing potential adopters because of the SORs. But with the Cardinal showing leadership, it is likely that other adoption agencies will now seriously consider pursuing a similar ... Continued on page two

Editorial comment: Page 11

Vatican creates anti-terrorist units after threats from Al Qaeda

BYEDWEST

THEVATICANhas created two new anti-terrorism units to prevent possible Al Qaeda attacks, the Holy See’s director of security has announced. A “rapid intervention group” and an “anti-sabotage department” have been established as sub-units of the Vatican’s gendarme corps, according to corps director Domenico Giani. He added that the Vatican also has begun closer collaboration with Interpol. The Vatican and Benedict XVI have been named as potential targets by Islamic terror groups several times in the past three years.

In Holy Week this year Italian security officials said they took seriously a message from Osama bin Laden accusing the Pope of launching a “new Crusade” against Muslims. The message, attributed to the Saudi terrorist, was addressed to “the intelligent ones in the European Union” and posted on an extremist website. In it the speaker blamed the Vatican for the Danish cartoons of Muhammad, which he called “the framework of a new Crusade in which the Pope of the Vatican has played a large, lengthy role”. In September 2006 an Al Qaeda-linked terrorist group

vowed a war against the “worshippers of the cross” after the Pope made his controversial speech in Regensburg in which he quoted Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus linking Islam with violence. In August 2005 Spanish police arrested a man after threats by Al Qaeda against the Holy See. The Arabic manuscript contained the heading “Operation Vatican”. The document, sent to the Spanish daily newspaper ABC, said: “The Iraq war has won the Vatican’s support for the capitalist countries, all for Iraqi oil. Those authorities will reap what they have sown with their support, and for those they have killed.”

Although the Vatican downplayed the threats, it did increase security, adding metal detectors for all visitors to St Peter’s Basilica and attendees at papal events. The gendarme corps have since been deployed at Vatican territories outside Vatican City, in particular at Rome’s patriarchal basilicas. Mr Giani told the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romanothat the rapid-intervention group would identify high-risk situations and prepare immediate action to neutralise possible threats. The anti-sabotage unit is specially trained to identify and react to suspicious packages or objects, he said.

Priest who blessed pets to wed Wayne and Coleen

BYANNAARCO

MANCHESTER United star Wayne Rooney and his longterm fiancéée Coleen McLoughlin are to be married by a Wirral priest whose biggest public appearance so far has been blessing pets on

the feast of St Francis. A quiet priest and a friend of Miss McLoughlin’s Catholic parents, Fr Ned Quinn of St Anne’s Rock Ferry, Birkenhead, is to marry the couple in a Mass this weekend, according to Fr John Joyce, spokesman for the Shrewsbury diocese. His most high-profile appearance to date was in 2005 when the parish had a Mass for the Feast of St Francis, followed by the blessing of animals including a 100-year tortoise. Fr Quinn was unavailable

for comment but the priest told the Mail on Sunday: “We kept the different types of animals separated into different rows so they wouldn’t fight, but I don’t think we needed to – St Francis probably told them all to behave.” Fr Quinn is one of two Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate who look after the church of St Anne’s parish. On June 14 the famous couple will tie the knot in a civil ceremony in Portofino in Italy for which a glossy magazine has paid £2.5 million for the exclusive rights.

MP backs China’s one child policy

LABOURbackbencher Barry Gardiner has praised China’s one-child policy and suggested that population control was one of three ways to slow down global warming. The Brent North MP, who has four children, praised a Chinese initiative that ‘has seen 400 million people not being born to create a carbon footprint’. He was speaking during a climate change debate in Parliament.

Full story: Page 3

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